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[Moth]

Hey guys, I wanted to start a little topic here for the game I'm working on called Dark Dominion. It's a quirky little action platformer; among its influences are classic Castlevania, Devil May Cry and Star Fox 64. An odd combination, I know.



(game looks a lot better in motion, trailer is at the end of the post)

It's not a long game, but not exactly short. You go through a sequence of levels with some branches thrown in; the path you choose will alter the final level you go through. Each level also has some randomized stages, so you probably won't go through the same exact game twice unless you play it too much.

You will fight such evils as a forgetful spider with a monocle, the Flatwoods Monster and a scythe-wielding dragonfly demigod. Also, a guy with a mirror for a head, an emotionally conflicted man-eating plant, a sentient golem who questions whether or not he has a soul, etcetera. You know, the usual.

There's also a lot of dialogue to pad things out. The people who like characterization will have plenty to take in, while people who want nothing but action can easily skip over the cutscenes and codec ESP conversations.

I'm putting a lot of work into the bosses. In addition to each level's main boss, they each also have a miniboss that you may or may not run into.

I'm trying to aim for a January release date (I have two levels and a huge final boss battle left to make). I hope people will be able to siphon some enjoyment out of it.

Here's a trailer on Youtube with kinda horrible quality.
Here's the same trailer on Veoh with much better quality.

[handCraftedRadio]

This looks awesome, Moth, looking forward to it!

I love these devthreads, we should have a seperate forum for them to keep them organized as well as encourage others to make them.

[Xion]

(game looks a lot better in motion, trailer is at the end of the post)

What on earth are you talking about? You had me at the stills! (That's not to discredit the motion, though) But really, this is looking quite nice. I await the release with eager anticipation.

[Zaphos]

Looks cute!  Good luck

The branching thing sounds interesting.  Are the branches based on conscious story-related choices or is it skill based (hard vs easy path) or more arbitrary, or ...?

[Moth]

Thanks guys, I didn't anticipate this kind of enthusiasm

The branching thing sounds interesting.  Are the branches based on conscious story-related choices or is it skill based (hard vs easy path) or more arbitrary, or ...?

You are free to choose between which level you go to at the branches. I've tried to keep the difficulty between each branch level balanced, so a person who thinks path A is cooler won't be hosed compared to someone going down path B.

Difficulty is still variable, though- there is a normal difficulty mode available, accompanied by an easier one for the less hardcore players, ala Viewtiful Joe.

[LastDinosaur]

I am in on this sorta.

Can't wait to see it finished.

[JLJac]

Looks good I think the music might be a little too noisy... Really like the character design. You seem to have a good story going on there!

[The-Imp]

It reminds of this one Gameboy game... I'll fetch a picture later...

But this is look really good!
 

[michael]

so good. so. good.

[Border]

impressing...
i wanna play it NOW

[Tanner]

you're waaaaaay to humble.
seriously, this looks AWESOME.

[KniteBlargh]

This game is going to claim a lot of fame.

Originally I was going to say that this game's going to claim a lot of my time, but I had to say something stupid instead.

[Nate Kling]

WOW cannot wait, the art work and animations look amazing! Can't wait to play.  Great job on the trailer as well.

[SpaceBrance]

Looks Viewtiful(You should watch what games you bring up, or you fill my head with lame ways to say something's amazing! :D)

But yeah, my brother came up to me, and say "Hey, I know what game you should LP next. (I just kindof do it on Youtube, I'm no one special)." So I decided to check it out.

Brilliant game, I cannot wait until this is finished. The day will be amazing!!
 

[Moth]

Thanks everyone for the inspiring words I'm glad to know people are looking forward to the game. Here's another batch of screenshots:



Sorry, they're kinda filler (same levels as the first screenshots); I was hoping to get a boss gameplay video up today, but I just couldn't record from the stereo mix. Neither of my computers' soundcards support that, unfortunately.

I'm gonna stop by Radioshack tomorrow to see if I can get a 3.5mm male to male cord, then I could just directly record the audio from the speaker. Hopefully starting tomorrow I'll have some interesting videos to add to the thread.

It reminds of this one Gameboy game... I'll fetch a picture later...

Yeah, I tried to do the graphics sorta Gameboy Color style. The way Zelda: Oracle of Ages / Seasons looked kind of stuck with me, and I wanted to eventually do a game with limited color sprites... so the game ended up looking like this.

Looks good  I think the music might be a little too noisy

Sorry about that, I always have volume on video sites low so I didn't consider that I might destroy some peoples eardrums :p

WhiteEyes: Awesome, it'd be pretty sweet to see an LP of my game Watched some parts of your Cave Story LP, by the way. I probably laughed way more than I should have at the

part.

[Loren Schmidt]

This looks really fleshed out, Moth! That's a lot of bosses and areas and plot work.

This is yet another neat upcoming game to keep on my radar.

[SpaceBrance]

WhiteEyes: Awesome, it'd be pretty sweet to see an LP of my game Watched some parts of your Cave Story LP, by the way. I probably laughed way more than I should have at the

part.

If you laughed at all at my video, then you're laughing too much my friend.
 

[agj]

Needs more barrel rolls.

No, but seriously, I liked what I saw in that trailer. I don't think that your characters translate all that well to huge dimensions, but they look good when they're small.

[siiseli]

Looking nifty, love the art.

[soundofsatellites]

OMFshsaghghagfhsdjkshgakgkaghkG !!!!

veoh it's no longer available in argentina!

the trailer in youtube looks great though. The gameplay seems varied, can't wait to try it!