Castle Paradox

[Bob the Hamster]

[kenecchi]

Lunaris, your Housemaster design is wonderful. I don't think anyone's noticed it yet.

[Fenrir-Lunaris]

The Great Tree in Ironwood forest finally bursts into full leaf when nature's balance here is finally restored! It's also gotten a bit of some touchups, what with the rope and spirit wards around it. Mostly this is to make it appear more consistent with some of the other visual depictions of it in the game's artwork. You could say this tree is a symbol of the world of Midgard itself - but it isn't the legendary "Yggdrasil" (the TRUE tree of worlds has a part to play in the game's final act).


As you can see here, the game is also being remade to take full advantage of the new layers feature in the OHRRPGCE. This was a complaint brought up by several other people who refused to play the game based on this singular technical detail. Ah for the days when scripting was still unheard of...


The missionary has stumbled onto a mysterious 'forest' of cacti... Will there be an evil cult surrounding their worship? Will we fight the Mad Cacti?

[Onlyoneinall]

I was gonna say refusing to play Vikings because it doesn't use layers is a stupid reason, but at the same time, I can understand why the game should use layers, since it comes packaged with the OHRRPGCE to show what it's capable of... even so, not playing for that one reason is stupid.

Other than that, your screenshots are showing better and better graphical work. Great job!
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http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=750 Bloodlust Demo 1.00

[Newbie_Power]

I really like your cacti.

This pixel art is good to study from. More people should look at it up close.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

[Shadowiii]

Still not enough Shadowiii references.
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But enough talk, have at you!

[Fenrir-Lunaris]

Update time! This time we'll be focusing on features being made to the battle system!


Sometimes, there'll be battles that are actually impossible to beat, either because the enemies are too strong, or that something hasn't happened yet. In this particular battle, a malevolent goddess appears halfway through and finishes off the other enemies - who until that point were unbeatable!


Classic OHRRPGCE monsters also appear, in bucketloads now! Plips! Yuks! Mutant cacti! Renard - the beastmaster - can learn their specialized attacks, but only if he's in the party when the enemies use them. He doesn't have to be hit with the spell, or even survive the fight! So long as he's around to witness the attack in question, he'll get it added to his spell list. When the fight concludes.


Sometimes, if you're very lucky, OTHER heroes will be present in battles to help out and give you a hand. These can be life-saving encounters, especially early on in the game where the enemies can easily beat some sense into you. Most of these "Assists" or "Wandering Heroes" are other adventurers from various OHRRPGCE games. This particular one showed up in another game where you had to gather crystals...


It's a trap!


The game not only makes references to OHRRPGCE games, but also to things like comics. This particular line occurs in one of the comics found in Hamsterspeak.


Text boxes like this are VERY important! Not only do they announce when you gain a new spell, they also tell you what it does, and lets you know some useful information about it! This is all part of the game's final expansion, which will give the heroes their abilities based on sub-quests and exploration (rather than simply leveling up)! Search EVERYTHING, for you never know what you'll find!


Finally, every scene is being reworked in various ways. Encounters which formerly had no introduction or scripting are finally receiving it, and being slightly expanded. The encounter with the goddess Hel is one such example. Moreover, the characters are much MUCH more animated than previously, using simple tricks like in Sword of Jade - the speaking character will often "twitch" or jump to indicate their lines.

[Moogle1]

Ooh fancy.

(psst check your Hotmail)
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Fenrir-Lunaris]

Update time! This month we'll be spending a bit more time showing off some polish of the game.


Notice how several of the party members have the villain surrounded? Is the author making a joke about how you can only have 4 people in your battle formation? Yes!


Another FFH reference, this time to the Beastman Fighter. You'll run into him a bit more when wandering around Thule. He's got the same attack patterns as the other helper battles, but hits a bit harder. He'll need it - slimes have TOUGH defenses against physical attacks, and I don't recall that character having any magic. Better help him out then.


Freki confronts her father at some point too, in fact it's mandatory. Notice this scene is similar to those in Boundless Ocean? Go play that game NOW, its art style is beautiful.


So the only question remaining is whether the game is still going to end with the "current" last boss. All the important new cutscenes seem to be building up to something BIG. Expect the ending to be epic. IT WILL BE METAL.


Hey, he sat up! And he's got a new sprite! Daddyrir's being generous! ...Is this an Okami reference?


Do not walk into pitch black places, for you are likely to be eaten by a Grue.


And Unspeakable Durr, from the Surlaw forums too? What else will we see?


This concludes this week's whirlwind tour of the newer scenes in VoM. Stay tuned next month for more.

[Gizmog1]

A grue! I am aghast!

[Bob the Hamster]

Yay! Spiffy!

I'll get it into subversion for Werewaffle.

One note, you should delete the "Shortcut to Viking" file from the zip. Windows shortcuts are NOT portable between computers, so if anybody tries to use that shortcut on their own computer, it will try to open "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Vikings Of Midgard\Vikings Of Midgard\Viking.exe" which will have unpredictable results if the person does not have exactly the same username and installation folder as you do.

[Fenrir-Lunaris]

I didn't think they were. My bad. I'd still somehow like to give some indication that it can be run with a smoothing filter, and have it already applied.

[Bob the Hamster]

[Fenrir-Lunaris]

Mini-update!






They're back?!

[Blue Pixel]

Wow. they all look amazing, but the bottom one has to be my favorite.
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