The official sequel to the classic NES Adventure game Shadowgate! Nearly FIVE times bigger than the original, the game includes more rooms, monsters, puzzles, deaths and game endings! It also features a hint system, day/night cycles, achievements, fast travel and 3 side quests based on Deja Vu, Uninvited and Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Game and Rewards Update #5
7 months ago
– Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 07:19:33 AM
Hello Shadowgate fans!
Here's an update on all things Beyond Shadowgate!
Discord
We are very active on our Discord channel so please drop on by! Lots of convo about design, art and PaC adventure games!
Game
We're still extremely busy working on the game. We no doubt underestimated the time it would take to finish the design, art and programming (not including the 3 new side quests) so please bear with us! We want to make sure that we deliver the adventure we promised and we'll keep you up to date as we work toward finishing the beast!
Here's a few new screenshots from Jeff, our talented lead artist!
Who might be beyond those doors?
A haunted mansion, no doubt!
A small town in the distance? Hope they are welcoming to Fenlings!
Also, here's the new 'Danger' tune from Orie, our awesome chip tune composer!
Rewards
A reminder that, all of the rewards are in some state of development or completion and we will be asking you to verify your address before we ship anything!
Labels came in and they are now on all cartridges!
The classic grey cartridge...
and the glow in the dark cart!
And the comic has now exited the fine hands of our colorist and is back with John Watkins-Chow who is adding the lettering!
Who's that guy that Del is talking to?
That's it for this update and we appreciate your patience! Please feel free to drop us a note here or on the Discord channel if you have any questions!
Have a good one!
Dave
Game and Rewards Update #4
8 months ago
– Tue, Sep 05, 2023 at 10:45:07 AM
Hey everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well! Here's the latest update on all things Beyond Shadowgate!
Discord
A quick reminder that Beyond Shadowgate has a Discord channel. Our team are very responsive so come on over here so we can chat and discuss the game!
Game
We've been working hard on both the main game as well as the side quests (Mines of Mythrok, Deja Vu, Uninvited). As I mentioned last month, the game is huge but we are making good headway on all fronts. It's just taking longer than we anticipated when we started the project (adding dozens of more rooms and coming up with new puzzles has the effect!) We will keep you up to date both here and on the Discord channel.
Here's some fun artwork!
Nothing says fantasy like a creepy swamp!
Yep! That's a recreation from the Uninvited!
Looks like Ace's old office!
A surprisingly sunny day in Kal Torlin!
Designnotes
Jeff (our lead - and only - artist) put together his thoughts on Point and Click adventures and helping making puzzles for the game...
"In my eyes, there's generally 5 types of puzzles in these kinds of PaC games...:
1)Basic Logic - This is your basic 'Key goes in Keyhole' puzzle. A simple roadblock that helps direct or bottle the player.
2)Study Logic - These are puzzles that require knowledge obtained through discovery, whether it's through dialogue, a scroll, in-game lore, etc. These are meant to nudge the player toward reading or speaking whenever possible to further the story and/or test the player's attention to detail.
3)Commonality Logic - These are puzzles that are a step up from Basic logic in that the key and keyhole require more investigation. These are often image association puzzles or even riddles. These are the most common kind of puzzles and are essentially brain teasers.
4)Moon Logic - Moon logic puzzles are infamous among '90s PC Adventure games for being a bit too obtuse. These are puzzles that are solvable on your own, but all-to-often require leaps in logic or blind luck to solve. The key and keyhole in this case are barely related or they reference something far too obscure for the average player to get.
5)Troll Logic - As the name implies these are BS puzzles that are meant to mess with the player. They have no logic whatsoever and they're designed to be infuriating or impossible without a guide.
As you can imagine, we try to avoid 4 and 5 while trying to strike a good balance between 1, 2 and 3. It's actually SUPER hard considering puzzles are approached vastly different for each person. I swear that half of the people who played through my games Infested and Spectacle said they were WAY too easy, while the other half said they were WAY too hard. It's definitely a challenge to find a good middle ground.
I'm admittedly not a huge, diehard puzzle Game fan, and although I've played a fare amount of Sierra and LucasArts P&C games back in the day, I wasn't particularly good at them. The reason Shadowgate, Deja Vu and Uninvited clicked with me was because those were puzzle games that I was good at. Of every old-school puzzle game I've ever played, I think Shadowgate NES is THE most well balanced.
Anyway, just something that was on my mind. Thanks for reading!
Rewards
As I mentioned last week, all of the rewards are in some state of development or completion. This includes the game guide and digital comic.
Note, don't worry if you move before we ship. We will send out a survey asking you to verify your address right before we ship :)
The cartridges are in! Labels, boxes and manuals should be arriving soon!
Standard and glow-in-the-dark cartridges, baby!
Digital Comic
John Watkins-Chow has nearly completed the pencils and I've hired an inker and colorist! We are well underway on those fronts as well! Here's a colored page!
What's going on here? We'll find out after we add word balloons :)
Thanks for being patient while we wrangle this beast in! We promise it will be well worth the wait :)
Dave
Game and Rewards Update #3
10 months ago
– Sun, Jul 30, 2023 at 02:09:19 PM
Hey everyone! We hope you are having a good summer! Here’s an update on where we are at!
Discord
Before I get into any details, we wanted to remind you that Beyond Shadowgate has a Discord channel. It is pretty active and the guys at both Zojoi and GrahfMetal are very responsive so if you want to chat with us about the game or see some new artwork, please head on over here and join the fun!
Game
We continue to make great progress on the art, audio and design fronts with programming trailing a bit behind. Over the last month or so, the enormity of the game has really hit our small team. With the additions of the stretch goal rooms, we are now over 225 rooms – which is 5x bigger than NES Shadowgate! We also continue to evaluate the art and design of each room as it is being programmed and are making significant alterations to ensure the best game play. We will have a better idea of a new release date as we get through the summer. Obviously, we will keep y’all informed regarding the delay (here and on Discord) so you are in the loop. We realize that some of you have waited for a sequel for 30+ years and we would be remiss not to take extra time to make sure it’s the best it can be!
Here are a few new screenshots from Jeff as well as a new tune from Orie!
That's a fine mustache, my friend!
A comfy couch by a strange fire, indeed!
I've always wanted to see the Ministers four-poster bed. Check that off the ol' bucket list!
Rewards
All of the rewards are in some state of development or completion – including the walkthrough guide. However, because the design will change based on testing, we won’t be able to ship the guide until we finish the game. So, we are evaluating the costs of shipping physical rewards twice, where we ship everything out by the fall except for the physical guide. Not sure yet but we'll let you know!
Here’s some of the other bits…
Box and Cartridge Stuff
The cartridges and labels should be in next week and I’ll post photos of them in the next update (and on Discord). In the meantime, here is both the art for the box and a few pages of the manual that we sent to the printer!
Ye cool-looking box art!
Juuuust like the old NES manuals!
Digital Comic
John Watkins-Chow is making good headway on the penciling of the comic (currently set at 16 pages) and I’ve identified an inker and colorist (who are chomping on the bit to begin their work.) Here’s a penciled page of Del running into Raven and Yorick (who will appear in Shadowgate II – a sequel to the 2014 game).
Del, meet Raven and Yorick. Raven and Yorick, Del.
That’s it for now! Thanks for being generally awesome and understanding as we continue to work on the biggest,best Shadowgate game ever!
Game and Rewards Update #2
11 months ago
– Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 06:46:02 AM
Hello!
Here's the latest update on the progress of both the game and the rewards :)
Game
Lots of work has been done on the game. The vast majority of the design is finished with only a bit of design work to go on the Mines of Mythrok side quest. As far as artwork goes, here's a quick breakdown...
Of the eight main sections of the main game, the art for five of them are completely done, two are around 97% and one at 73%. As far as the side quests go, combined they are around 45% done. We're pretty happy with this (Jeff is a pixel rockstar!) Programming is also coming along very well!
Here are some side quest rooms that you may or may not recognize!
Rewards
Here's where we are at with the rewards. Every reward is in some state of development or manufacturing. Whether this is the comic, the strategy guide or the cartridges themselves. Speaking of...
Cartridges
The cartridges have the longest lead-time and have been ordered. It could take up to two months to get them in. The sleeves, however, are here!
Cartridge sleeves, baby!
Cloth map
The cloth maps are done and they are gorgeous!
Pixel perfection!
Lots and lots of maps!
Coins
The coins are in and look great!
The gargoyle never looked so good!
That's about it for now! In the next update, I'll update you on more of how this ever-expanding game is progressing vs the original schedule as well as new reward updates!
