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Dark Gates - 0.6.0

RPG game inspired by "Death Maze/ Labirynt Smierci"


Bartosz Debski
(braqoon)
Game inspired by paper RPG tiled game "Death Maze" or "Labirynt Smierci" released in Poland long time ago. Game will feature random generated maze (while you playing), monsters, treasures, etc. Aim of the game is to find Dark Gates and kill Unnamed in order to destory Dark Gates.


Play Dark Gates

Changes

At the end of 2013 Dark Gates just reached 0.6.0 version. This one is a first after Poznań Game Arena expo and includes first batch of improvements based on feedback that I had received from all those kind peoples that wanted to play Dark Gates and shared their opinions at PGA 2013. As usual this release features some additions, changes and bugfixes. I have promised last time that I have squashed all of game braking bugs but my friend who tested the game have found 3 ! I stand corrected, thanks Darek. Let's start our tour on what's new in version 0.6.0:

Life indicators

One of the most common questions coming out from play testing on PGA was how much life our heroes and monsters have. Outcome of this is that now monsters on easy and normal difficulty levels will have shown how much life they got. On hard there is no indication. Unnamed will not have life indicator regardless of difficulty. This change introduces new fight tactics but also lowers overall difficulty of play as you can make more educated choices.

Monster Life Indicator

There is also new indicator for heroes. Each hero will have now a life indicator in format current/max life. Change should help in better team management.

Ranged weapons in first row.

This release features also ability to use ranged weapons in first row, while in fight. If a hero have no adjacent enemies  in front or on the sides then it can use ranged weapon or spells. Previously heroes in such situation would have been skipped, now they are back in action.

Visual enhancements

From now on you can encounter some remains of lost battles or previous heroes in the labyrinth. This is purely cosmetic and hopefully will bring more variety to an eye. That is just the beginning as that was some code change to accommodate 'non-interactive' items. If you like what you see please tell me about it. It's quite easy now to add more.

Return to the adventure

Since save system has been introduced, whenever you decided to save the game and then return to your adventure, all monster stayed as they were. That was not intended in long term and finally has been fixed. When you decide to continue your adventure and you will return to labyrinth all monster are hostile. Game assumes some time gap between re-entry to the dungeon.

Bugfixes

As mentioned earlier, three game braking bugs has been found and fixed. Probably most annoying one was a game crash when an upgraded hero attacked the monster. This has surfaced after upgrade levels has been lowered.

Steam Greenlight

And another big news, Dark Gates is now listed on Steam Greenlight. I would higly appreciate if you got a minute spare and click on link below to vote on Greenlight. Hopefully with your help Dark Gates will appear on Steam store. This already raised a question about keys from Desura - will Desura supporters will get Steam key if game will get greenlit ? I can only say that I will definitely try to make it happen. Watch this space for info.

Changelog - Release 0.6.0

----------------------------------------------------------------------

New: In fight avatars: Matthias, Corran, Zuryk, Ravon-tith, Gerudirr

New: Easy and normal difficulty now have monster life indicator, hard don't. Unnamed regardless of difficulty level, life indicator will not be shown.

New: Visual enhancement to the labyrinth.

Change: Hero life indicator in fight arena now shows max life eg. 5/10.

Change: Use ranged weapon or magic from first row if hero don't have anyone to attack in adjacent fields.

Change: If in team movement phase, UI skip description is changed to "end of turn" to make clearer how to get you from that phase.

Change: Exploration menu and more stats are now showing max and current life indicator.

Bugfix: All monsters are now hostile after team is returning to labyrinth.

Bugfix: Game is crashing while in fight (to much power) - problems with upgraded heroes.

Bugfix: Undead are among us. Heroes killed by door are still kind of present.

Bugfix: Game crashes when you die in final fight.


Play Dark Gates on Desura or on Gamers Gate

pygame 844 2d 783 game 397 rpg 118 random 19 commercial 7 tiles 4

Links

Home Page
http://darkgates.dfourgames.com/
Source
http://darkgates.dfourgames.com
Windows
http://darkgates.dfourgames.com

Releases

Dark Gates 0.1.1 alpha — 12 Jan, 2012

Dark Gates 0.1 alpha — 8 Jan, 2012

Dark Gates 1.1 — 3 Apr, 2015

Dark Gates 0.1.2 alpha — 31 Jan, 2012

Dark Gates 0.1.3 alpha — 24 Feb, 2012

Dark Gates 0.2.0 alpha — 30 Jul, 2012

Dark Gates 0.01 — 7 Jun, 2010

Dark Gates 0.1a — 26 Jul, 2010

Dark Gates 0.4.0 — 5 Apr, 2013

Dark Gates 0.2.1 alpha — 29 Oct, 2012

Dark Gates 0.3.0 — 21 Jan, 2013

Dark Gates 0.3.1 — 6 Feb, 2013

Dark Gates 0.4.1 — 26 Apr, 2013

Dark Gates 0.5.0 — 29 Oct, 2013

Dark Gates 0.6.0 — 27 Dec, 2013

Dark Gates 0.4.2 — 11 Jul, 2013

Dark Gates 0.9 — 26 Aug, 2014

Dark Gates 0.7 — 9 Apr, 2014

Dark Gates 1.0 — 7 Jan, 2015

Dark Gates 0.8.0 — 10 Jun, 2014

Pygame.org account Comments

  • matrix090 2012-02-05 09:06

    you can add better oss or alsa audio support for linux `cuz on linux, game can`t detect the sound card

    Braqoon 2012-02-13 22:41

    At the moment there is no sound in the game, but when I tested I had no problem with sound under ALSA.

  • John 2012-02-25 02:29

    Cool project!  One suggestion: I would have liked the map movements and other transitions to go faster - it feels a little sluggish as is.  I look forward to seeing this develop .

    Braqoon 2012-02-25 21:35

    Thanks for feedback. I will think about it.

  • Ian 2012-06-05 14:19

    How do I get a character to casr a spell please?

    Braqoon 2012-06-15 11:21

    Spells can be only used while character is in second line while in fight. Third icon in weapon selection is magic. Sorry for late reply, just spotted it.

  • renesd 2012-07-31 11:56

    Hello,

    Just finished watching your video... and it's looking great!

    Braqoon 2012-07-31 12:02

    Thanks for the kind word :)

  • Mekire 2012-10-29 09:01

    A little disappointed that you have decided to ask for money for this already. Was looking forward to seeing what improvements you had made.

    Braqoon 2012-10-29 10:05

    Hey. i will be posting some videos and tutorials soon based on 0.2.1 release. Maybe then i can convince you to support . Anyway you can have a chance for a code redeemable on Desura. Just follow @dfourgames on Twitter.

  • Kaliber64 2012-11-11 11:07

    The movement does look a little sluggish. But looks really cool. I love random. I also love games that never end but can remain fun and always evolving. Games that basically make their own content as you go. Really hard to balance though.

    Braqoon 2012-11-12 09:38

    Thanks for your thoughts. Latest version has speed tweaked so it is more dynamic in movement and in fight. As for balancing, yes you are quite right. I will introduce static maps as well so i hope i can keep anyone happy.

  • Margaruga 2013-03-03 10:47

    Great, I like it

  • CaptainGlitter 2013-03-04 20:07

    could you make the game interact with your choices like the walking dead

    Braqoon 2013-03-05 06:56

    Technically yes, but not sure what do you want to achieve by such mechanics in my game.

  • Your MOM! 2013-04-07 07:55

    You should make a demo version. Or a cutoff without payment. I mean Its obvious that you put a lot of work into it, but that doesnt mean its worth 10 bucks to me (or even 7 on sale). A demo version might get me hooked and wanting more, willling to sacrifice 10 bucks just to check it out. I mean currently as is, i would fork over 2-3 bucks to check it out, but with only a video to watch, i wouldnt go higher. I mean you just recently added a save feature to it. This game looks like it has potential, and thus the only reason i wrote this comment. Just giving my two cents.

    Braqoon 2013-04-14 15:37

    Hi, thanks for your comment. Yes, there will be a demo in near feature when I will finish all the art. There is a full version 0.2 in meantime if you want to see how it works. core mechanics are there but bugs as well :).

    Forgot to mention, Dark Gates are now on sale till the end of April.

    John 2013-05-09 11:53

    in linux, trying to extract it, only gets error as if it was corrupted

    tar -zxvf DarkGates_alpha_0.2.0.tar.gz

    gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
    tar: Child returned status 1
    tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

    Braqoon 2013-05-09 14:08

    it works with :
    tar xf DarkGates_alpha_0.2.0.tar.gz

    John 2013-11-23 00:57

    Oh whoops sorry

  • metulburr 2013-12-29 05:40

    As much as i disagree with the price, i voted for it to get on steam. Maybe if it gets on steam you would consider a reduced price for a deal at that point.

    Braqoon 2013-12-30 00:53

    Hi, thanks for your vote. I will definitely consider that. On that point I often give a 50% or 30% off on various sales, so price is not that scary if you are not 100% convinced.

  • Peter R. 2015-01-08 20:57

    Incredible work. Looks very good and around 8 Euro is a fair price.

    Braqoon 2015-01-08 22:54

    Thanks, appreciated.