Hello everyone,

It has been a while since the last big update. We have been very busy working on the next two chapters. We cannot publish them separately as they are totally linked together to progress further in the game. We still have a bit of work before we publish them, but their release is not far from now. "The Storage" and the "Black Mage Quarter" are the biggest chapters of the whole game. After those two ones, we'll be close to a complete game release.

Here are a few screenies (trying to now spoil too much) :





I also spent some of the time fixing issues reported by some players since the last build. We'll publish a complete list in the next build's post.

Keep an eye on the next build, it will be worth :-)

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since the last big update. We have been very busy working on the next two chapters. We cannot publish them separately as they are totally linked together to progress further in the game. We still have a bit of work before we publish them, but their release is not far from now. "The Storage" and the "Black Mage Quarter" are the biggest chapters of the whole game. After those two ones, we'll be close to a complete game release.

Here are a few screenies (trying to now spoil too much) :





I also spent some of the time fixing issues reported by some players since the last build. We'll publish a complete list in the next build's post.

Keep an eye on the next build, it will be worth :-)

Hello, dear Adventurers!

A new game update is available!

Among some bug fixes and other things, here is a list of improvements:

- City visuals have been improved (especially the cave).
- Temple wall set has been reworked and is now final.
- Many new statuses (more than 10) have been added to characters (such as "poisoned", "magic shield protection"...) and are displayed on the portraits (like the hunger/overweight/thirst ones were already).
- A lot of new Items, weapons (both some long-range ones and melee kind), new armors and others various items.
- New Spells (Magic Shield is now working and we added other ones).
- The fireball spell was reworked and now looks visually different according to the level of the caster.

But that's not all, and that's probably even more awaited: YES, finally, you can now play a NEW Chapter!

Welcome to the Jail !!! Explore a totally new environment with a new level architecture, meet some new creatures, try to unlock 18 new secrets, and try to solve some new kind of puzzles!

Thanks for your patience, and thanks again so much for your bug reports and support, guys!

Enjoy! :)

Hello, dear Adventurers!

A new game update is available!

Among some bug fixes and other things, here is a list of improvements:

- City visuals have been improved (especially the cave).
- Temple wall set has been reworked and is now final.
- Many new statuses (more than 10) have been added to characters (such as "poisoned", "magic shield protection"...) and are displayed on the portraits (like the hunger/overweight/thirst ones were already).
- A lot of new Items, weapons (both some long-range ones and melee kind), new armors and others various items.
- New Spells (Magic Shield is now working and we added other ones).
- The fireball spell was reworked and now looks visually different according to the level of the caster.

But that's not all, and that's probably even more awaited: YES, finally, you can now play a NEW Chapter!

Welcome to the Jail !!! Explore a totally new environment with a new level architecture, meet some new creatures, try to unlock 18 new secrets, and try to solve some new kind of puzzles!

Thanks for your patience, and thanks again so much for your bug reports and support, guys!

Enjoy! :)

Hello adventurers!

The release of the next chapter draws ever nearer: the final touches are being added by our 3D artist, Julien. The Temple has also been reworked to fix rendering issues caused by shaders from the previous version of the engine (incorrect reflections in the lower parts of the temple, for example). We’ve also added several items and spells into the game.

Although the update won’t be released this month, it will be very soon and we promise it will be worth the wait! In the meantime, here’s a screenshot from the Black Mage's Quarters later in the game:



Happy dungeon crawling!

Hello adventurers!

The release of the next chapter draws ever nearer: the final touches are being added by our 3D artist, Julien. The Temple has also been reworked to fix rendering issues caused by shaders from the previous version of the engine (incorrect reflections in the lower parts of the temple, for example). We’ve also added several items and spells into the game.

Although the update won’t be released this month, it will be very soon and we promise it will be worth the wait! In the meantime, here’s a screenshot from the Black Mage's Quarters later in the game:



Happy dungeon crawling!

Hello adventurers!

Just a short development update before the next build: On the development side we’ve fine-tuned the previously added core ruleset. From the feedback we received, it seems as though it was already fairly well balanced, so the changes are minor. We have finished the new and improved AI system and have implemented a new set of creature behaviours. You’ll see these in action in the next update, which will also contain the next chapter levels. Old creatures (with the old AI) are going to be replaced soon as well.

On the artwork side of things: beyond working on the new chapters, our 3D artist, Julien, has reworked some key areas of the temple, city and the caves. These changes will also be included in the next update.

Stay tuned, as we expect to put the next chapter into your hands around end of April. We are currently doing the finishing touches!

Happy dungeon crawling :)

Hello adventurers!

Just a short development update before the next build: On the development side we’ve fine-tuned the previously added core ruleset. From the feedback we received, it seems as though it was already fairly well balanced, so the changes are minor. We have finished the new and improved AI system and have implemented a new set of creature behaviours. You’ll see these in action in the next update, which will also contain the next chapter levels. Old creatures (with the old AI) are going to be replaced soon as well.

On the artwork side of things: beyond working on the new chapters, our 3D artist, Julien, has reworked some key areas of the temple, city and the caves. These changes will also be included in the next update.

Stay tuned, as we expect to put the next chapter into your hands around end of April. We are currently doing the finishing touches!

Happy dungeon crawling :)

Dear adventurers,

Version 0.9.934 is now live.

This build includes the new RPG rule system. For those of you starting a new game, we’ll be very interested to have a look at your saved game when you reach the end of the Temple. This will allow us to fine-tune the new system and make sure there aren’t too many differences between players when they finish the Temple. So if possible, please send your saved game to contact@hydro-games.com

The new system is better balanced, and allows us to more easily change combat and character progression. The new system also uses an external file to fully control all parameters, opening up the possibility for custom rules and even modding. We’ll be able to talk much more about this in the future.

We’ve made a lot of fixes and adjustments for this build, but here are the most important ones:

-You can now drop an item on a portrait to add it to the hero’s backpack, a feature that was requested by many players. There’s no longer any need to manually open the inventory and then click on a slot to put it there. Just left click on the portrait to drop the item, without opening the inventory. If the hero has an empty slot in their backpack, the item will be placed there. Note that, the right mouse button will still open the inventory. This will also work for ammo and stackable items, stacking them automatically.
-Stamina is now fully implemented.
-A cooldown is now applied to a hero after she casts a spell, just like when using items.

Bug Fixes:
-Fixed an issue with the white moon symbol when changing hero’s position.
-Fixed an issue with the adventure book not opening after using esc key.
-Fixed an issue with reading books after they were thrown, leading to some empty text.
-Fixed an issue with the cursor remaining visible when opening in-game quick menu.
-Fixed some jumps when using ladders in the Temple and Jail.
-Improved adventure book’s scrollview behaviour, useful when you have read a lot of books/scrolls.
-Improved auto pickup of ammo, it now by default adds the collected items to the non-casting hand.

Beyond all the changes above, we’ve made improvements to the engine. As a reminder, Dungeon Kingdom’s engine is designed to be used for several games. To make development faster, we need the engine of the first game to be powerful. That’s why we’ve improved it in several ways.

We recently added inverse kinematics to creatures. This allows, for example, the feet of a creature to perfectly touch the steps of stairs, or perfectly follow a slope, all computed in real time. We were not satisfied with the creatures navigation until now, especially in the next areas of the game where there are a lot of stairs and height variations (much more than in the Temple). This is now working great! Also, inverse kinematics gives us the opportunity to make realtime procedurally generated animations: I’ll give you a simple example: when a creature switches a lever on a wall, from any position, the arm moves perfectly with the lever, without any pre computation or any work from an human animator.

The last major feature and improvement is about the artificial intelligence of creatures. The previous navigation module was designed very early on in the project. Since that time, the game has changed and we decided to go deeper with regards to the design of levels, with potentially any shape, lots of floors etc. This game is far from simple 2D grids, as found in most classic dungeon crawlers. So we needed a better system, more robust and more flexible, and it has been developed on these last few weeks. We also improved the decision making module to make smarter AI, and more importantly, to allow mixing it with some specific behaviours when necessary. You’ll understand what we mean in the Jail and the other levels!

Please note that the current creatures in the Temple and City still use the old system and the old navigation module, but they are likely to be replaced over time.

Now I have some great news. In the next build, you’ll explore a new area in Dungeon Kingdom, you will be able to leave the cellar and we’ll open more of the levels to everyone! Finally!

Thanks so much for your patience and support, and thanks a lot to all those who help us fix issues and balancing in the game. To finish the post, check out a few new screenshots…

Dear adventurers,

Version 0.9.934 is now live.

This build includes the new RPG rule system. For those of you starting a new game, we’ll be very interested to have a look at your saved game when you reach the end of the Temple. This will allow us to fine-tune the new system and make sure there aren’t too many differences between players when they finish the Temple. So if possible, please send your saved game to contact@hydro-games.com

The new system is better balanced, and allows us to more easily change combat and character progression. The new system also uses an external file to fully control all parameters, opening up the possibility for custom rules and even modding. We’ll be able to talk much more about this in the future.

We’ve made a lot of fixes and adjustments for this build, but here are the most important ones:

-You can now drop an item on a portrait to add it to the hero’s backpack, a feature that was requested by many players. There’s no longer any need to manually open the inventory and then click on a slot to put it there. Just left click on the portrait to drop the item, without opening the inventory. If the hero has an empty slot in their backpack, the item will be placed there. Note that, the right mouse button will still open the inventory. This will also work for ammo and stackable items, stacking them automatically.
-Stamina is now fully implemented.
-A cooldown is now applied to a hero after she casts a spell, just like when using items.

Bug Fixes:
-Fixed an issue with the white moon symbol when changing hero’s position.
-Fixed an issue with the adventure book not opening after using esc key.
-Fixed an issue with reading books after they were thrown, leading to some empty text.
-Fixed an issue with the cursor remaining visible when opening in-game quick menu.
-Fixed some jumps when using ladders in the Temple and Jail.
-Improved adventure book’s scrollview behaviour, useful when you have read a lot of books/scrolls.
-Improved auto pickup of ammo, it now by default adds the collected items to the non-casting hand.

Beyond all the changes above, we’ve made improvements to the engine. As a reminder, Dungeon Kingdom’s engine is designed to be used for several games. To make development faster, we need the engine of the first game to be powerful. That’s why we’ve improved it in several ways.

We recently added inverse kinematics to creatures. This allows, for example, the feet of a creature to perfectly touch the steps of stairs, or perfectly follow a slope, all computed in real time. We were not satisfied with the creatures navigation until now, especially in the next areas of the game where there are a lot of stairs and height variations (much more than in the Temple). This is now working great! Also, inverse kinematics gives us the opportunity to make realtime procedurally generated animations: I’ll give you a simple example: when a creature switches a lever on a wall, from any position, the arm moves perfectly with the lever, without any pre computation or any work from an human animator.

The last major feature and improvement is about the artificial intelligence of creatures. The previous navigation module was designed very early on in the project. Since that time, the game has changed and we decided to go deeper with regards to the design of levels, with potentially any shape, lots of floors etc. This game is far from simple 2D grids, as found in most classic dungeon crawlers. So we needed a better system, more robust and more flexible, and it has been developed on these last few weeks. We also improved the decision making module to make smarter AI, and more importantly, to allow mixing it with some specific behaviours when necessary. You’ll understand what we mean in the Jail and the other levels!

Please note that the current creatures in the Temple and City still use the old system and the old navigation module, but they are likely to be replaced over time.

Now I have some great news. In the next build, you’ll explore a new area in Dungeon Kingdom, you will be able to leave the cellar and we’ll open more of the levels to everyone! Finally!

Thanks so much for your patience and support, and thanks a lot to all those who help us fix issues and balancing in the game. To finish the post, check out a few new screenshots…