Dungeon Master HD

[Baalrukh]

Hi,

Like many people here, Dungeon Master is one of my favorite games.I spend countless hours playing it when I was a kid, but I never actually finished it. I reached Lord Chaos, but never understood how to defeat it.
I grew up, got a newer computer and I let go of DM.
But since then, I learned to program. Every now and then, I would remember that game, and told myself I could write a remake, but I never started work. Once, I tried to write a 2D engine for DM in Flash, but I quickly lost interest.
I found a job in a company making mobile games (among other things) so I lost interest in doing games on my free time. But lastly, I have been fed up with my work, and when Legend of Grimrock was released last year, it was like a spark.
I saw articles about LoG a few days after its release and watched the trailer. The next day, I bought LoG and play a little (only the first level). The day after, I started coding a remake of Dungeon Master.
At first, it was just for fun, wishing that I could do something quick just for me so I could finally beat the game, but as I progressed, I saw the work I had to do. I have been working on it every week-end since May, and I reach I nice prototype.

Before speaking further, here is a concept screen


And a YouTube video

The first level (not counting the Hall of Champions level) is almost fully playable. There are a lot of things missing : magic, chests, experience and level ups... and things to rewrite (yet again) like the UI.

Tell me what you think about it !

[Paul Stevens]

Wow! That's fun to see such a familiar place
in such a different way.

[Gambit37]

Ooooh, very nice! That looks like a very impressive piece of work; well done
Will you be creating particle effects for the torch flames, like LoG? That could look awesome.
What platform is that running on?

[Bit]

For the time you could spent in, it's just excellent.
- I may be weird, but I like especially your workarounds so that it is playable at that point with the most urgently needed stuff available.
- It rarely happens that programmers are also good modellers/animators - but those screamers are just great.
See Gambit, I bet this torch flame is a workaround as well, just to test if those kind of animations work as well.
- And then - I like it that there was no big announcement, but you come up out of nowhere with your first post - and an impressive show. I just wish you to Stay!

[RAF68]

I saw the video very nice work
I am of the same opinion that Bit
I hope you will continue to develop this game thank you again

[Gambit37]

Oh, I didn't see the YouTube video up there originally? I just had a quick look -- very impressive. The Screamer is excellent!

[Baalrukh]

Thanks for your feedback !

To answer some of your questions :
- Programmer are rarely good graphics and well ... I am no exception. I hired someone for the graphics part. My contribution is the UI and a few other things
- There are a lot of temporary thing, the torches on the screenshot lack particle effects but you can see some in the video. But they would require more work. As Bit noticed, I went for the necessary features. My goal was to have the 1st level playable, so I was like "ok, what's in the way now ? pressures plates ? ok lets make them work". Spells are something I would have liked to do, but it needs some UI and I am absolutely NOT satisfied we the current UI.
- I work only on a PC version. But as I use Unity3D, a MacOS version is just a matter of a few clicks. I could also do an Android or iOS build, but controls need to be changed drastically for mobile devices. I will try to setup a downloadable version in the next few weeks, but there is still some work for that ...
- ... which brings me to the future of the project. As I said, I started this project for fun, but I spend so must time and some money to have something "sellable", either to start an official remake (which seems to have failed) or to find work somewhere else. I cannot afford all the remaining monsters, for all the objets ... (we're talking tens of thousand of $).
As for time, yes I can spare some, and I probably will. I'm proud of the work I did, but I can't let it without magic. But for the moment I need to concentrate on finding a new job !

And by the way, I need to thank you all for the precious info there is on dmweb.free.fr . I wouldn't have made it so far without it

[Bit]

As soon as the word 'money' is written, the community reacts pretty sensible and can turn 180 degrees in less than a second. Checkout the latest copyright-discussion threads. If you went for something sellable, you probably learned a lot, got a lot of working classes (I assume it's made in C++), so can do something like Legend of Grimrock - but - all that's allowed that remains of Dungeon Master - is... the inspiration. (maybe even not this).
Well, I'm not a lawyer, but those ones need just such things to earn their money with.

[Baalrukh]

Don't worry, I know what I can and cannot do with the name and data of Dungeon Master. I made this post because my attempt at getting the rights has failed. I will remain an amateur project.
I could use the engine to make a different game, but that too costs money and I don't want to risk it.
But the game can also help me find a new job and in that way, it is 'sellable' (well in fact, it makes me more sellable ^^ )

[Bit]

That's it! And that's because it's worth to do it!

Maybe I'm alone with that opinion, but if you finish that one for free and then would i.e. open a kickstarter project announcing to make a game in that style, using this one as reference - I think you'd even get support from here. No one is doomed to stay hungry, but it depends how to get the supper.

[kanda]

Looks very nice !!! good luck !