RELEASED: Dwelling in Darkness (EGA)

[ProphetSword]

Thanks to the great worldhack that Nol Drek put out, I am working on a currently unnamed one-week challenge project in old-school EGA for a party around 12th level.   

The finished module is available at the bottom of this message.  Some things to understand about this module:

* Combats are tough, save often.  This is on purpose.

* The game uses the EGA hack created by Nol Drek.  If you like the looks of it, I recommend it as a way to create a quick EGA (or CGA) style module.

* I wanted to challenge myself to create a module that used only dialogue.  It was tough, but aside from signs outside buildings, the entire module's plot is done using only dialogue and no descriptive text.  Just wanted to do something different.



Here are some teaser screenshots:

[hans]

Hurray!   

[Kaz-Keith]

 Woot been a long time since I've seen those names, Ben 

 The classics are still classic.

[ProphetSword]

I posted a module last month with those names!   

http://ua.reonis.com/index.php?topic=3449.0

[Ray]

This also looks like a LOT of fun...can't believe all the cool games that are coming out right now!

This challenge is rocking it!   

[ProphetSword]

My biggest issue this time around is going to be meeting the deadline.  Not because I want to add to the game, but because I have had a lot of things coming up this week I didn't expect.  That's why I have been saying it's a "one-week" challenge, but nobody will hold you to it. 

The idea is to kick away the perfectionism and get something done.  Missing the deadline due to things outside of FRUA really has nothing to do with perfectionism.  So, I may be a day or two late...but then again I turned in the last few challenges a couple of days early, so maybe I earned a few extra on this one?   

[ProphetSword]

In the meantime, here are a few more screenshots to show that progress is still being made...

[ProphetSword]

Here's another screenshot.  This one I did because I wanted to see if I could make the screenshots smaller and less blurry (they look blurry to me for some reason and less like they actually do when playing the game).  So, this is just a test...but still a sneak peek at what will be in the module...

[Ray]

Love those old-style umber hulk icons, too!

This looks like a pretty high-level adventure...not enough of those around!

[steve_mcdee]

Looking good, Ben. Are those new combat walls?

[ProphetSword]

The module uses the EGA worldhack that Nol Drek created, so you would really need to ask him about that.  In order to save time, I am merely using his base module.  If you haven't taken a look at it and you're interested in creating EGA modules, I highly recommend it as a good place to start.

I did my own EGA module work prior to his release, but his base was much better, so I went with it.  I'll be giving him credit in the finished module.

[Nol Drek]

I think I took the cave combat walls from FRUA and loaded the EGA palette with a "closest color" replacement. If I recall correctly, there is a total of ONE combat wall in most of the GoldBox games, so I needed something to fill in the extra slots.

I'm excited to see the EGA hack is being used for something! The fact that it is a Ben Sanderfer mod is icing on the 16-color cake.

[ProphetSword]

Thanks for sharing the info. 

And again, I will say that the EGA worldhack is an amazing bit of work.  It's weird how FRUA feels more like a real Gold-Box game when I use it.  I think it has something to do with the fact that the majority of the Gold-Box games used simpler graphics than FRUA (with the exception of Dark Queen of Krynn). 

I'd love to see a simpler VGA Gold-Box hack as well (mainly because I'm jealous of that awesome Pools of Darkness frame in your current module).

[ProphetSword]

Apparently, I suggested this adventure was for a party of around "20th level," but that was a bonehead typo.  I have corrected the first message in the thread to properly reflect that this adventure is for a party around "12th level."  Sorry.

Also, I just finished a big area.  Didn't fill in all the text, but I ran out of events far too soon...

[ProphetSword]

Still working on a title and putting the finishing touches on the final area.  Here's some more screenshots.  As you can see from the last one, the final battle an be really, really tough...