Beyond Shadowgate

Game Update #10
9 months ago – Mon, May 06, 2024 at 10:39:43 AM

Hey Everyone!

Hope things are well with you! Here's an update from our Producer/Designer Christian Moseley!

We are approaching the beta testing phase! All planned rooms are currently programmed, and we can MOVE through the entirety of the game. We are currently programming the interactive elements of the final chapter. 

Before we enter beta, each team has to click on every interactive spot, on every screen, with every action (LOOK, TAKE, SPEAK…) to give our final approval. This is to ensure Grahfmetal approves my text, I approve Grahf’s phenomenal art, and everyone is satisfied with every screen. This means 1,000’s of clicks per team member and dozens of hours of manual work, revision, implementation, and further testing. While this level of scrutiny has taken a long time, we hope it'll expedite the beta testing process. Most importantly, it'll make for a polished and authentic Shadowgate experience. 

We added new user interface mechanics this month. X-Input and D-Input controllers are being implemented and tested. We have a left-sided button layout that slides into the screen. Playing with a mouse is fun, but for players used to the original NES / Famicom ICOM games, these controller setups should feel great! 

The team loved the mini-map function of Metroidvania games, so we implemented our own Mini-Map for each chapter along with a % completion counter! We hope this makes for a fun, consistent dopamine release for players. 

We are doing a final sweep on the game sound as well. All the game music is complete, and sound effects are being imported and normalized. Once we have a master copy of Beyond Shadowgate, we can complete and review the strategy guide and get the physical components out to you wonderful fans! 

 Thanks for hanging with us this long. Please remember to join our discord community (currently 500+ members) for additional updates, fun polls, and to interact with other passionate adventure game enthusiasts.

Here's a video that shows controller support and also the new Metroidvania-inspired completion map!

That's it for now! We're on the home stretch!

Thanks!

Team Zojoi and Grahf Metal

Game and Rewards Update #9
10 months ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2024 at 05:58:23 AM

Hey everyone! 

We're definitely coming down the home stretch. Our Producer and lead Designer Chris Moseley has today's update...

Game Update

In the last few months, the team completed implementing all of the Kickstarter Stretch Goal additional chapters including Deja Vu, Uninvited, and the Mines of Mythrok. The game is now a whopping 240 screens, certainly much larger than the anticipated amount when we launched our Kickstarter!

The team is currently finalizing chapters to prepare for beta testing, and has verified 4 of 11 chapters complete. This includes extensive testing/playing through a chapter, noting whether the gameplay, art, sound effects and text are in sync for the theme of the area, squashing bugs, and polishing. This process is complicated as Del will visit some locations repeatedly as he travels through Kal Torlin, with events and NPC’s changing over time. It’s hours of playing and replaying areas but the good news is that the chapters are awesome and capture the look and feel of the original NES Shadowgate!

As well, we've gotten great feedback from the community in our Discord, and impressions from the demo are helping us put little improvements into the game. We appreciate it a ton!

The roadmap to completion still includes: finalizing the remaining 7 chapters and multiple endings, controller implementation, Steam integration, Achievement implementation (we are hovering around 30!), and beta testing. Our target release date is this summer.

Here's a few more screenshots!

Reward Update

The physical goods are nearly finished. Only the strategy guide remains and will be finished once the game is finalized but it’s looking great! Here's a few photos of a test print of around 50 pages so far!

Hey! I know it's taking a long time but as you heard from Chris, with the Stretch Goal rooms, we've apparently created a beast!

Questions? Ping us here or send us an email at [email protected]

Thanks!

Team Zojoi and Grahf Metal

Game and Rewards Update #8
12 months ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 07:15:58 AM

Hey everyone!

We hope you are doing well! We wanted to give you an update on Beyond Shadowgate!

Discord

Please join our very active Discord channel if you haven't already! The team is more than happy to answer your questions and hear what you have to say about the game! 

Game

Things are moving very smoothly! We're knee-deep in programming and testing the side quests! The team is really excited about what we are creating and we believe you will be very happy with the final game!

Here's a video that Chris and Chris put together that shows some of the new side quest rooms!

Rewards

Chris is really cranking on the Strategy guide! I don't want to spoil the game for you so here's the first three pages that follow the game demo (that we are confident you have played! :)

That's it for now! Thanks so much for your patience!!!

Team Zojoi and Grahf Metal

Game and Rewards Update #7
about 1 year ago – Sat, Jan 13, 2024 at 08:09:22 AM

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the late update. It's been a crazy last month but I hope your new year is off to a great start! Here's the latest update on Beyond Shadowgate!

Discord

Why aren't you on our Discord channel? You should be on our Discord channel! Lots of fun and info there!

Game

As I've mentioned, things are going along very nicely! The art is almost nearly complete with programming trailing it. That said, there is a LOT of testing going on and that leads to revisions on the art and programming sides. This cyclical approach is critical to insuring that we make the best game possible!

Here's a new screenshot and a few images showing how our fab artist Jeff uses references for his pixel art!

Rewards

All of the rewards are coming along nicely. BTW, we won't ship anything until we verify your address so that's good to know, right?

Chris at 316 games has been working on the BSG strategy guide and, man, does it look fantastic! In the next update I'll show a few pages from the game play itself, but check these out! Chris has been adding a lot of extra fun stuff to make it really feel like those old NES guides!

Game and Rewards Update #6
about 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 02, 2023 at 08:05:15 AM

Hey everyone!

Here's the latest update on Beyond Shadowgate!

Discord

Are you on our Discord channel? No? Please stop on by and say hello! 

Game

We don't have a lot new to say this month about the game other than we are furiously working on it and are hoping to have it ready in Q1 of 2024. Sorry it's taking so long! Between the stretch goals and additional design (and some redesign), it's the most ambitious game we've worked on since the 2014 release of Shadowgate. We just want to make it big and fun and great! Thanks for all the kind words of support. :)

Here's a few new screenshots from Jeff to tide you over!

Rewards

A reminder: all of the rewards are still being worked on or are finished. We won't ship anything until we verify your address so no worries there!

Here's one more page from the comic!

Thanks again everyone! Feel free to comment here or drop us a line at [email protected] if you have any comments or concerns!

Also, we hope your holidays are merry!

Team Zojoi