Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

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manutoo
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Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

Hello,

I'm an Indie developer (owner of Mana Games website) ; so far I mainly created tennis games, but since long time I wanted to try to do a RPG, and I finally started to do a Dungeon Master clone. It's still in the early development stage, but the game just reached the Alpha (ie: it's far from complete, but external testing is possible & required to be sure it's headed where I want :) ).

A screenshot ; visually, nothing is final (ie: this is mostly programmer art, only placeholders till some artists actually create all the needed stuff), but it gives some idea of what's going on :
Image

So would you like to test it ? If so, let me know and I'll send you a download link by Private Message (for Windows : require a Shader 2.0 compatible 3D Card ; ie: any gamer 3D card since 5 years).

Mainly, I'd need to have answer to these 3 questions :

1) so is it fun as it is, even a little bit ?

2) with a better IA (ie: smarter monsters with more variety in their behaviours and a lot more abilities), more abilities & Talent trees for our Party, more weapons, gears & stuff to loot, better graphisms, all that through 20 levels for about 20 hours of gameplay, will it get tremendously fun ?

3) How long time did it take you to finish the 1st level ? (total time is shown of top left of the screen, but it includes the time spent in Menus)

Note: Dungeon Breaker is a project codename, not the final name of the game.

EDIT:
Alpha 2 is out ! More info below in this topic (download link in this 1st post also leads to Alpha 2)
Last edited by manutoo on Thu May 01, 2014 6:40 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

I wrote the previous message a bit too fast, and I forgot some details :
- this Alpha features a level (or an half level) that should requires between 30 and 60 minutes to finish
- the combat system is very different from Dungeon Master and it's the main thing that needs testing
- there's an integrated full featured visual map editor ; although there's no documentation, so it's not easy to use it completely, as it has a lot of advanced features

Little additional notes :
- you can move & turn with the keypad 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 keys ; you can re-assign these keys in the config tool that pops-up at start-up
- you can press the right button to enter mouse-look view ; without unpressing the right button, you can now press the left button to advance
- if the FPS are low, lower the quality in the config tool at start, and then press 'Esc' during game and lower "View Range" in "Video Options"
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

The main bugs & issues have been fixed so now I can post a public link to the Alpha :
http://www.managames.com/download.php?D ... er_dmr.rar (~40MB) .

I'd still like a couple of reports, so if you didn't try it, now is a good time !

Thanks in advance for your comments ! :)
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by Seriously Unserious »

This looks like an interesting game from the screenshot you posted, I'll definitely want to try it out before too long. I'm a bit busy with projects of my own so I probably wouldn't be able to give you the time you deserve as a major tester at this time (that may change later though) but I though I'd give you a little encouragement for now.

and welcome to the forums! :)
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

Seriously Unserious,
thanks !
Late report is better than no report at all so if in the future you have some free time, don't hesitate to give it a try ! ;)
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by Bit »

Time passes in another scale here, so don't worry manuton, there will be more replies, I bet.
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by Seriously Unserious »

Yup. When you posted that I think a lot of the forum regulars (myself included) were distracted by the Chrismas story thread (an annual December tradition here) and actual Christmas.
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by Chaos-Shaman »

looks good manutoo.. yes, i some how missed it as well... welcome.

will the dungeon have a story relation to the originals?
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

Chaos-Shaman,
no, the story won't be very important (although it'll have a bit more story telling than in the original DM) and it won't be related to the originals.

Basically : you're a new guard or staff recruit in a dungeon prison ; the 1st night you're there some bad & mysterious stuff happens, and when you woke up all the prisoners escaped. The warden is scared & hurry to runaway so he appoints you to get back the escaped prisoners and let you pick 3 other prison personal to help you for that while he's leaving through the dungeon lift with the remaining staff.
So you'll have to get the prisoners back & discover why they could have escaped in the 1st place.
After that, it'd be spoiler (and it's still unclear in my head :P ).
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by Chaos-Shaman »

sounds right, you're staying on the RPG style i remember. i just grabbed it, keep up the great work, i'll have a go at it.
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

Hello,

here an update on the development of my Dungeon Crawler : I just finished the 2nd Alpha !

Here a new screenshot, that illustrates some of the changes in the GUI :
Image

The goal of this Alpha 2 is to find a few people willing to do Beta testing during the development of the game.
It's important for these people to have :
- good analysis skills
- played at least some MMORPGs, and/or RPGs, and/or Dungeon Crawlers (preferably Dungeon Master from 1987, Might & Magic saga from the 90's, World of Warcraft, or Legend of Grimrock), or possibly some Hack and Slash games
- could do about 1 hour of test per month till end of this year (if only 50% of this, it's still ok, though)

I'll need mostly feedback on :
- level layout (ie: is it interesting to explore the dungeons, level after level)
- combat system (ie: is it fun & challenging)
- puzzles (ie: are they too hard or too easy)
- boss fights (ie: do they bring a plus)

So if you're interested, let me know in this topic or here (if you prefer private reporting) : http://www.managames.com/mail_en/?subje ... %20Testing .

Download link for the 2nd Alpha, featuring a test level that should offer you between 30 minutes to 1 hour of gameplay :
http://www.managames.com/download.php?D ... r_dma2.rar [~43MB]

If you have any comment about this Alpha, don't hesitate to write them in this topic ! :)

Notes:
- you need a good 3D card to play it ; a 6 years old $300 card, a 4 years old $200 card, or a 2 year old $100 card should be ok
- if the FPS are low, lower the quality in the config tool at start, and then press 'Esc' during game and lower "View Range" in "Video Options"
- as you may already have noticed, it's not a Dungeon Master "clone" per se ; it's more an "alike", as a lot of stuff will be different

New features since Alpha 1:
- a bunch of new stuff in the editor, but only 1 made it to the test level : a secret door ! (but almost all mechanisms are in the DevTest dungeon, if you want to check it)
- enemies are smarter, can do more stuff (strafe, attack from far, ...)
- the final boss fight is actually a boss fight ! That means it takes more time to kill him and it's somewhat hard
- semi-random loot : some enemies now drop random loot for your party to equip
- attributes & secondary attributes
- talent trees (at least the basis of them, the talents themselves still need to be done)
- chat log
- auto-mapping
- HP & mana potions
- Difficulty levels (you can change it anytime, in case you have trouble to kill the boss ;) )
- And some other little things

So now the game engine is done at ~90%. It mostly misses :
- all handling of special abilities & talents
- hotkeys
- color highlighting in tool-tip (bad stuff in red, good stuff in green, etc...)
- a few little stuff here & there
- slightly better animation system for the enemies

And of course, it still misses all the content :
- some decent dungeon environments (I did the current ones and I'm not an artist, in case you didn't notice :mrgreen: )
- 20 different kind of enemies
- a bunch of bosses
- a ton of equipment and enchantments
- 20 levels to explore
- 4 classes & all the talents & abilities for your party members
- menus
- more sound FX
- a good bunch of visual FX
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

New screenshots, much more beautiful, can be seen in this new topic => http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... 71&t=29904 ..!
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Re: Dungeon Breaker : Alpha version !

Post by manutoo »

Hello,

here some screenshots from the "Beta 1" (the whole game isn't in a Beta state, but the 1st part is, or almost is :P ).

Visually, it's close of the final result, although it still needs some serious works on the GUI and the visual FX.

They're taken from the first 5-10 minutes of the game.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Last 2 pictures are taken with the Frozen time effect, that occurs when using the Active Pause.

I'm still looking for a couple of beta testers.
Let me know here if you're interested (requirements are explained 2 posts above) : http://www.managames.com/mail_en/?subje ... %20Testing
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