Behind the Design Part 1 & a Board Game Giveaway!
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Mar 08, 2023 at 08:48:29 AM

Creating an Authentic Retro Experience

The first part of today's update comes from our friends at GrahfMetal!

Hi and thanks for backing us! I'm going to give you a look into how we’re bringing this sequel to an all-time classic to life! What does it mean to make a “retro” style game today? We get the benefit of using more powerful hardware, tools and techniques, but we have to make sure we don’t lose sight of the charms and limitations of old-school games in the process. We want to make sure Beyond Shadowgate looks and feels like a true sequel to the 8-bit console version of the original Shadowgate.

I’m going to write about the decisions we’ve made, the lines we’ve drawn and the attention to detail that’s going into Beyond Shadowgate.

The Look

Outside of the game play, the main thing on our minds is how the game looks. Making Beyond Shadowgate as the sequel to the 8-bit Shadowgate, we are using a pixel art graphic style (which you’ve been seeing a lot of here!) The game runs at a native resolution similar to 8-bit consoles, with extra width to accommodate modern 16:9 screens.

While we’ve kept the pixel aesthetic and resolution true to 8-bit limitations, there is one area where we are pushing beyond: colors. 8-bit consoles were very limited in their color palette and the number of colors that could be drawn on screen at once. With the benefit of modern hardware, we are allowing the pixel art to use as many colors as needed. The palette remains limited, but by the artist’s choice, and not for technical reasons.

Beyond Shadowgate’s world and characters are vibrant & expressive in a true modern take on 8-bit style!

The Sound

Keeping with the awesome, and delightfully chunky, graphics, the sound of Beyond Shadowgate is equally excellent using chip-tune music and sounds. One of the modern benefits of development is that since we aren’t limited to a specific cartridge limitation, we can have many more sounds and music tracks to fill out the retro-stylized world of the game! Orie is doing a fantastic job and I'm sure you've heard one of his latest pieces from a previous update. No? Here it is then!

We'll talk more about sound and music later, so stay tuned for more updates soon!

The Feel

What is “Game Feel”? It’s a very tough thing to define and nail down. But Game Feel, as a concept, is what makes a game satisfying to play. It has everything to do with mechanics and presentation. Often, it’s “Game Feel” that determines what your favorite games are.

For Shadowgate, it has to do with its unique presentation elements. It’s the minimal, but impactful, moments of transition. The way the screen blinks black to show something has changed, like a door opening or a creature slithering out of a crevice. It’s the satisfying ‘click’ of collecting an item and adding it to your inventory. 

It’s the transitional arrow-wipes that point out the direction of travel. It’s the words of the grim reaper, taunting you with every death and failure.

We wanted to make sure these elements are intact, and are just right. This is how we’re working on making Beyond Shadowgate “feel” right. If you’re a fan of 8-bit Shadowgate, we want you to feel right at home in Beyond Shadowgate.

Shadowgate the Living Castle Board Game Giveaway

Did you know that our friends at 317Games created a board game based on Shadowgate? Shadowgate the Living Castle is awesome and is published by Trick or Treat Games! You can pick up a copy here!

However, if you want to try and win a copy, you're in luck! Just click below and learn how!

Until next time!

Dave

Amazing Beyond Shadowgate Video + Projects We Love!
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Mar 07, 2023 at 06:05:20 AM

Beyond Shadowgate (Turbo Grafx!) Playthrough!

There's been some questions about if our version of Beyond Shadowgate is the same version that came out on the Turbo Grafx in 1993. The answer is obviously no as that game was a side scrolling adventure and, well, heck, why should I spoil it for you? :)

This video came out over the weekend and was created by our friends at U Can Beat Video Games. It's a complete playthrough of the Turbo version as well as some backstory on the creation (provided by yours truly)! Check it out and please subscribe to their channel!

Projects We Love! - Hibernaculum!

We wanted to make sure this campaign was on your radar! The game is a first-person, retro, sci-fi/horror role playing game being developed by a small indie studio. Watching their videos, I am instantly reminded of playing games like Dungeon Master but with a super creepy Alien vibe!

Here's what the developers say about their inspirations!

"To revisit the dungeon crawling experience of games such the Eye of the Beholder & Lands of Lore first and foremost, while secondarily blending in the gloomy shock of Horrorsoft's Elvira & Waxworks series and thereby building a game that pushes past these more elementary beginnings. Also borrowing ideas from later cRPG titles such as Baldur's Gate and Fallout for it's RPG elements, and looking to games like System Shock 2 and Resident Evil 2 for it's more survival horror-like elements we hope to essentially turbocharge the old school dungeon crawler genre into something more open, less rigid and more conducive to non-linear & emergent gameplay."

There you go! Please consider checking out and backing their campaign!

Thanks!

Dave

Stretch Goal #3 UNLOCKED and NEW Goal Added!
almost 2 years ago – Sun, Mar 05, 2023 at 01:14:38 PM

The Mines of Mythrok Stretch Goal is Unlocked!

Wow! Thanks for helping us reach the 3rd Stretch Goal where you will enter the Mines of Mythrok, a side quest set in the Gatekeeper Mountains. This area is heavily featured in the Meta Quest game Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok and now you can play within its dark corridors as well!

 $85,000 Stretch goal - New Chip Tunes!

We've gotten a great response to Orie Falconer's soundtrack to Beyond Shadowgate so we asked him to EXPAND the soundtrack and add additional pieces of music to further enhance the game! Obviously, these tunes will be in BOTH the main game AND the digital soundtrack as well! Here's a piece you have yet to hear from Orie...

Super fun stuff! 

 Spread the Word!

Thanks again for pledging to our indie campaign and we hope that you continue to spread the word! Many people still don't know that they can play a demo of the game. If you are active on social media, please consider using the graphic below and adding a link to the campaign... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zojoi/beyond-shadowgate/

or this one that just tells them about the campaign...

Dave

New Add-Ons and a Sneak Peek at the Strat Guide!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 04, 2023 at 09:03:44 AM

We've got some Cool New SWAG!

Hey everyone! We have had more than a few requests for t-shirts so we've created two designs! The shirts have been added to the Add-On section in check out. 

Here's a few things about the shirts and Add-Ons in general...

• Each shirt will cost $20 plus shipping.
• The shirts are black, unisex, Gildan Cotton, preshrunk, seamless collar, tapered neck and shoulders.
• After the campaign ends, you will receive a final survey that will request sizes.
• There was a mix-up on a few of the digital tiers that doesn't allow for physical add-ons. KS won't let us correct this now but when you get the final survey, you will see all the add-ons available :)
• If you are ordering multiple physical rewards, our goal is to pack everything in the best (and cheapest to you) possible way.
• So, even though each item has a shipping price associated with it, we will combine shipping to save you money if you have multiple physical items. :)

That said, on to the shirts!

 This first design was created by Jeff at GrahfMetal and is the official backer shirt of the game!

 This second design really celebrates the fact that Shadowgate has endured for 36 years!

Strategy Guide UPDATE!

We've started work on laying out the strategy guide. Here's the current draft of the front and back covers. Perhaps you will recognize our inspiration! 

 That's it for now! Please continue to tell your friends about the campaign :)

Dave

Design Documents (Part 2)!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2023 at 09:22:16 AM

Converting 32 year old docs from MacVenture to NES style: Part 2

Here's the second part of Chris' discussion on converting the docs. For fun, I added some of Jeff's (GrahfMetal) artwork to show the comparison between my old black and white images and Jeff's stunning 8-bit ones. We'll go into the art process more in a later update :)

"After indexing hundreds of pages of the original Beyond Shadowgate data, we had to translate our own design document from the template. The information couldn’t be copied and pasted as the designs were for a Macintosh computer and the game style we chose is a sequel to the beloved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version of Shadowgate.

The differences between the two are substantial. The Macintosh system uses an image-based inventory, a large text display to show multiple paragraphs of text at once, and screen space for highly detailed artwork. The NES version used a text-based inventory, a smaller text display limited to short sentences, and simplistic yet charming art.

Despite the advances in technology in the last 30 years, we wanted to build a sequel to the NES Shadowgate and capture the charm of the original. This meant we kept the NES user interface, simple art designs, and short text descriptions. Which meant we had to edit a lot of the original design to accommodate our goals.

The Macintosh design had a whopping 450+ rooms and hundreds of pages of text. The game was built to be expansive, going far beyond the caves and castle of the original. Beyond Shadowgate locations included a forest, desert, and a city complete with several characters. While impressive, many of the rooms in these locations were not relevant to puzzles or game progression and served mainly to give a sense of scale. So we were able to trim several empty hallways, forest paths, and bleak desert dunes. 

The text presented another challenge. In the Macintosh version, a single mouse click could bring up several sentences worth of text in a second. This feature allows for longer, elegant descriptions to aid player immersion. But we chose to include the flowing script and user interface from the NES version. This interface takes longer to display text and limits us to 4 sentences of 32 characters or less per page. Even clicking rapidly, the text display is much slower, so we had to condense the writing.

Fortunately, during our research into what made the NES Shadowgate beloved amongst fans and a mainstay on top 100 NES games lists, we discovered that players adored the simplicity of the original. People raved about the clean art designs and short, sometimes humorous descriptions.

For example, an original quote for the Macintosh design reads: 'A constant breeze makes its way in through the far end of the tunnel. You are reminded of the vibrant smells of the Fens.' The NES design reads: ‘The scent of the gentle breeze through the tunnel reminds you of the Fens.’ Thus reducing the text while keeping the tone intact."

That's it for now! More info on the design and art process in future updates!

Dave