"The Academy" is a demo design which Manikus did as a contribution to the Dungeon Craft House/Manor/Castle contest in 2009.
Being a demo, the design can probably not be counted as a real game, but I still encourage everybody interested in DC to check it out.
Among other interesting aspects, Manikus used an enlarged, square 3d viewport and a 800x600 pixel resolution for this layout, and the art is very beautiful (even though some walls could still be better if all walls slots were used properly). Perhaps even more interesting is how talk events are handled in this demo. Meeting characters, you can type in words which then result in appropriate answers - similar, to some degree, how negotiations are handled in Wizardry 7.
Back in 2009, I gave the following marks (on a scale from 0-10):
Story: 4 (While being a demo, the design gave glimpses of a very interesting background story...)
Events and Riddles: 2 (This was one criterion for the contest, but there was no real riddle except finding the right keywords in the talk events.)
Graphics: 10 (In 2009, this was probably the most impressive design concerning graphics...)
Presentation: 9 (I gave this high mark because I was so impressed by the modified screen layout.)
Gameplay: 3 (There is really not much the party can do except meeting NPCs...)
Even now, 7 years later, I think there is much to learn from this demo in terms of graphics, layout, and handling talk events. I wonder if this demo will result in a finished game one day... If so, I would be eager to play it!
