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Dark Gates - Comic book

I'm happy to announce that Dark Gates will get his own comic book. This production will show a story of six heroes entering Labyrinth ... well you know the story.  This project is in very early stage but It will be definitely finish before final release of the game. As a massive thank you to every one who supported Dark Gates by purchasing a copy of alpha on Desura, Gamers Gate or Direct Download (provided by Desura), comic book will be attached as pdf to the game. As soon comic book will be ready, you will get it. Below you can see a taste how the art will look like - Braqoon and Gilith - pencil & ink by Armando Rillo.

Dark Gates - release 0.7.0

First update in 2014 finally arrived. This time we have got a bunch of new stuff so let's see what new release have on offer.

Fight avatars

Finally all playable heroes have their own avatars while in fight. That was the last thing on the list which was holding other changes to be looked at. No more black silhouettes. Original game art is finally complete.

Special skills

This is probably the most interesting change in this release. Some monster have gained special abilities which will change how you fight against those monsters. Those special abilities will either affect your heroes or it will help monster in the fight. What are those abilities you ask ?

  • Hydra - If wounded, agility increases +1 with each turn, which in the end increases damage of Hydra's attack,
  • Kronk - They smell so badly that affected heroes are -2 on agility. Hero ability to not be affected by smell depends on resistance stat.
  • Troll - If wounded, Trolls can heal themselves (+1) on every each third turn.
  • Spider - while facing a spider, heroes needs to watch out for spider web. On each turn spider extrudes web towards all heroes. Each hero if affected will lose ability to perform an attack. Ability to deflect this web depends again on resistance stat.
  • Gorgon - It can turn peoples into stones. If hero in front row, middle position will fall under the spell it will be out of the fight. Hero still can be killed. Ability to deflect depend on resistance stat.
  • Sorcerer & Unnamed - They will cast an lightning spell instead of normal attack. They will do so until casting another spell will kill them.

Other stuff

New elements to Fight arena UI has been added. Information about the current phase of the battle and effects that are in place are placed on left top corner for the screen.  This release also introduces permanent death to heroes regardless of which difficulty you are playing on. Previously a killed hero could have been selected again. This no longer possible. Stats for most of the heroes and few monsters has been touched to provide a more balanced gameplay. Few additions also has been made to game sounds department and a new spell "Mass Heal" is available to be selected.

 

Changelog  - Release 0.7.0

New: In fight avatars: All Zebest, Alryk, Curvenol, Dalmilandril, Dierdra, Eodred, Maytwist, Gwaigilion, Sliggoth, Gislan, Larraka, Linfalas, Theregond, Weldron,
New: Monsters (Hydra, Kronk, Troll, Spider, Gorgon, Sorcerer, Unnamed) have special skills/spells which affect fight,
New: Permadeath - Killed heroes no longer can be selected back into party when continuing saved game,
New: Doors are now displayed on corridor tiles,
New: Enhanced fight screen UI,
New: Sounds for Female heroes, Spider, Warg/Werewolf,
New: Dark Gates are visible on mini map after placement.
New: Spell - Mass Heal
Change: Adjustments in frame rate to make menus more responsive
Change: Monsters and heroes stats adjustment.

 

Version 0.7.0 will be available on 11th of April. 

Let's Play Dark Gates

Many interested peoples in Dark Gates were not happy that demo is not yet available. As it is always an extra work to maintain demo alongside not fully released game, I have decided to do a "Let's Play" video to show everybody what Dark Gates is about. Hopefully this video will also serve as a kind of manual on how to play the game as tutorials are still not present. 

Enjoy:

Dark Gates - release 0.6.0

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.

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

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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.

Dark Gates - release 0.5.0

In the latest release of Dark Gates you can find new look in fight arena, full gamepad support and more. Let's start with most obvious change which is art change in fight arena. As you can see below, top down view is changed to isometric-ish view with brand new art for floor and heroes avatars are finally starting to appear. There was also much confusion in 'team movement' phase on what to do if game is not allowing to skip it. Now if your are in movement phase (fight) there will be a red Celtic looking cross showing which positions must be filled before ending this phase.

Gamepad Support

Big feature of this release is a gamepad support. If you got an gamepad with at least d-pad and 6 buttons, game should support it as long your OS does. With this there is also a change in game UI, where depending on your input device you will see button icons. If you got gamepad is plugged in, game by default choose to show gamepad mappings (x360 type controller).  Dark Gates has been tested successfully with official and 3rd party x360/PC wired controllers, PS3 3rd party wired controllers and old school PC Logitech Wingman Precision.

 

Adjustments in Upgrade department.

While testing new release it came out that current upgrade levels are quite high. Release 0.5.0 brings much lover upgrades, starting from 30xp and 80 gold for first level, and then 40xp and 80 gold for another two.

Bugfixes

Three game crashing bugs has been squashed. One has been found thanks to gamerslonovod on Desura. Many thanks for detailed info. Hopefully this is a last of those nasty bugs in Dark Gates.

 

Changelog - Release 0.5.0

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New: Gamepad support

New: Visual indicator of which positions have to be occupied in team movement phase while in fight

New: In fight avatars: Almuryk, Braqoon, Draugr, Gilith, Lordil, Zareth

New: Button icons in UI instead of text

Change: New look of fight arena

Change: Lower upgrade price to enhance heroes.

Bugfix: Game is trying to load an empty slot in Continue menu

Bugfix: Game crash while exploring labyrinth - map generation script.

Bugfix: Game crash while trying to continue a saved game and game tries to display spells in player selection menu but one of the spell is not in default selection (eg. Resurrection)

Bugfix: In save game menu, going back from typing name of the save game takes you back to main menu.

Bugfix: Game crash while in team movement while attempting to swap heroes in positions.

Dark Gates at Poznań Game Arena 2013 in Poland

DFour Games is happy to announce our presence  at this year biggest gaming expo in Poland. If you would like to play latest build of Dark Gates, chat about the game or just about anything ? Come and see DFour Games at Poznań Game Arena. Venue is happening between 18 - 20 of October (19-20 open to the public).

Link to press info from PGA (in polish) click here.

Interview for Gamezilla.pl

If you are interested about indie game development it's worth to check out an interview I have gave to polish http://gamezilla.pl/. This is a little window to my life and work. Also you can get my first made game called Xeno !

Link here http://gamezilla.komputerswiat.pl/publicystyka/2013/08/one-man-army-czyli-jak-to-jest-robic-gre-w-pojedynke

Translated version (google) is here .

Dark Gates - release 0.4.2

Update 0.4.2 brings big art update, number of new features, bug fixes and improvements based on feedback. As mentioned in earlier releases, current work is focused on bringing in missing art and making sure there is no game braking bugs. So let's shed some light on what this release has to offer.

Avatars

Finally all heroes have avatars. No longer black & white generic faces. Each hero's avatar has been hand drawn and only piece of art that is missing now in Dark Gates is heroes representations in fight screen. This is aimed to be done within next release. Also please welcome a new hero - Matthias. He is a unique character as this is only hero that have a single weapon. His longsword requires two hands, but damage is grater that regular one handed sword. Matthias is a winner of indiebundle.com competition, please make sure he is well used in game as he needs some practice.

Translations

This release also features new German translation by Thomas Faust. Work also has been done to open language files to anyone who wants to contribute and translate Dark Gates to his/her native language. For quick tutorial please go here

Bug fixes & speed improvements based on feedback

Thanks to your feedback, reviews and some testing, three quite big bugs has been fixed. Hopefully that means no more crashes to OS. I had lot's of feedback about how slow main exploration of labyrinth is. With this release speed of movement has been increased so exploration is now much faster. Of course feedback on this change is also much appreciated.

Sale

As there seems to be now season for sales, Dark Gates  will be not left behind. Game is 50% off till the end of July. Have a great summer.

 

Full changelog for release 0.4.2 alpha
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New: All remaining heroes now have avatars.
New: Hero Matthias - Winner of indiebundle.com competition.
New: Longsword (two-handed) weapon.
New: Community based language files now can be used, see HOWTO.txt in lang folder.
New: German translation
Bugfix: Stairs down on level 3 are wrongly placed ( there is nothing down past level 3) 
Bugfix: Game crash while in fight when heroes attack
Bugfix: Re-done language selection in options in order to support user-generated translations
Bugfix: Game will start without settings.cfg file and will use default settings

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