The Dink Network

"The Shadows of Death"

November 6th 2013, 04:55 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
EDIT: As of May 2014, this D-mod is planned to be released as an unfinished sometime during the summer of 2014. Stay tuned.

*******************************************D-Mod Info******************************

The Shadows of Death starts immediately after Dink and the Bonca. Dink decides he must hunt down his new arch-nemesis Luke, who has traveled to a far away island. A new, devious plot begins to emerge that is far more complicated than Dink could have ever imagined. Dink must stop Luke at any cost.

Shadows of Death is going to be one hell of a D-mod. What I love most about the RPG genre is how in-depth the story and back stories can get, and that it something I'm trying to do with this. While I don't think my writing skills are even close to Tim Maurer's, one of the focuses of this D-mod will be in-depth, and connected stories. Dialogue will definitely be lengthy at times.

Features of the D-mod:
-A new quest system inspired by the Paragon/Renegade system of the Mass Effect series. How you help the people of the island will open up differing dialogues, and can change how the game will end.
-A new magical sword that develops alongside your Paragon/Renegade. Both sides of the sword are powerful, but have unique abilities depending on which path you go down. Choose wisely.
-Many borrowed graphics from various D-mods to allow a more diverse game world, and to help incorporate more unique mechanics and ideas into the game.
-Upwards of 5 hours of content, featuring many side quests, and many areas you can explore. Side quests are beneficial to your completion of the main story, but completely optional.
-Some quests will incorporate my dark, mature, twisted sense of humor. I'm a horrible person.
-There will be bad jokes. Tons and tons of bad jokes

***********************************************************************************

Stats (Updated 6/13/2014)

Estimated D-Mod Completion: ~30%

Current # of Scripts: 170 - Using the Improved Scripts Pack
Current # of Screens: 247
Area 1 Complete: ~99% (Bug fixes, and detail mapping needed, otherwise complete)
Area 2 Complete: ~5%
Area 3 Complete: 0%
Final Area Complete: 0%
Current # of Main Quests: 4
Current # of Side Quests: 5
Estimated Size: Epic
Estimated Release Date: ~Tomorrow

***************************************************************************

Screenshots:
Entering Faiori
The Dead Forest
Area 1 Map
In the Desert
Firemouth Village Oasis
First look at map with partial desert area

More updates to come.
November 6th 2013, 05:02 PM
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DackFight
Peasant He/Him United States
Making Topics off-track faster then you can say it 
Can you tell us some of these bad jokes, and which kind of bad are we talking about?
November 6th 2013, 05:07 PM
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Cocomonkey
Bard He/Him United States
Please Cindy, say the whole name each time. 
When you say "borrowed" graphics, do you mean from other games?
November 6th 2013, 07:31 PM
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leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
and which kind of bad are we talking about?

I'm assuming he means jokes like,

"Did you hear about the guy who was signing autographs in his car? The say he was idling."

"How'd the dog cross the country? With its tail wagon."

etc.
November 6th 2013, 10:15 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
Borrowed graphics from other D-mods. And the bad jokes are along those lines, most of which are references to other games, movies, or something completely random.

Disclaimer: These screenshots do not represent the graphical quality of the final game.
November 6th 2013, 10:17 PM
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Cocomonkey
Bard He/Him United States
Please Cindy, say the whole name each time. 
I like your bad jokes, DK.
November 6th 2013, 10:19 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
It gets worse, trust me XD but thanks! I'll get around to taking screenshots of pretty screens in a bit as well.
November 6th 2013, 10:43 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
November 7th 2013, 09:45 AM
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Kyle
Peasant He/Him Belgium
 
New d-mod preview, yay!

GL with it, it looks like you're doing well already!
November 10th 2013, 03:26 AM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
So in the last couple days, I've actually made decent progress on this. My first dungeon is just about done. The puzzles are not bug-free, but they're functional for the purposes of play-testing, and future beta-testing to help me iron out any bugs I don't find. All I have left to do is to finish scripting out the boss fight, and then I have a cutscene I need to plan out and script. I should be able to do all that by tomorrow, and then my first area is once again done. Can't wait to start mapping out and scripting quests for Area 2...for the second time. -.-
November 10th 2013, 03:32 AM
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Cocomonkey
Bard He/Him United States
Please Cindy, say the whole name each time. 
Splendid. I think 2014 will probably have more DMODs than 2013 did.

I look forward to playing your upcoming mod... and also the one you already put out. >_>
November 10th 2013, 03:42 AM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
Thanks. Dink and the Bonca wasn't anything spectacular, but for a first attempt it wasn't half bad. Honestly I don't think Shadows of Death will qualify as spectacular either, because my lack of DinkC knowledge and ability to come up with awesome ideas will end up hurting it in the long run.

As I'm typing this, an interesting idea has popped into my head. Now to find a way to incorporate it into the game, because it'd be mostly unique to a D-mod (to my knowledge) and it'd be pretty dang awesome.

Edit: "dang"?? What the hell, swear filter.
November 10th 2013, 09:49 AM
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Splendid. I think 2014 will probably have more DMODs than 2013 did.

Yep, mine is shooting for 2014 now too. Maybe if a person or two is lucky I'll have a beta test before the year is up though... probably not though.
November 10th 2013, 11:35 AM
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Skull
Peasant He/Him Finland bloop
A Disembodied Sod 
Splendid. I think 2014 will probably have more DMODs than 2013 did.

What, two? I'd certainly hope so.
November 10th 2013, 01:58 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
Yeah. Because of how busy I am with school and other hobbies, even if I do nothing but work on this when I can, it might be ready as early as February 2014. I still have so much to do, and honestly I only have like 30% of the rest of the game figured out in my head or on paper, if even that. One of the things that's going to take me the longest to figure out is me having to script a new spell, because I won't be able to copy/paste it from another D-mod :\ I'll probably be able to use bits and pieces from fireball scripts though. I also need to come up with more side quests and figure out things to add to make the main quest line take longer. I won't add pointless running around if I can avoid it, but it just depends on what I come up with.
November 12th 2013, 01:58 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
Update:

I've mapped out the first part of the desert area (Area 2) and even added most of the beautification detail to most of the screens. As for story progress, I've started on scripting the first side quest of the area, and I haven't yet started on scripting main quests. Not much else to say, really.

Proof:
In the Desert
Firemouth Village Oasis

Screenshot links also added to original post.
November 12th 2013, 02:07 PM
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That oasis is awesome.
November 15th 2013, 08:13 AM
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When I think of 'oasis' I think date palm trees.
Is it difficult to create such new scenery?
Nevertheless I enjoyed seeing your screen shots.
And like many other members of DN, I'm sure, I look forward to a new Dink adventure.
December 21st 2013, 12:09 AM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
This project isn't dead, I just haven't been able to focus on a single thing for any period of time for the last couple months. It took me over a month to beat Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, after all.

But anyway, I worked on this a bit today, and I worked on fixing some warp scripts, which are now working. This accomplishment will open up a way for me to do more interesting things with mapping, and potentially more compact and complicated dungeon layouts, which would help save me on my limited map space still available. Didn't do a whole lot else today.

I'm currently on winter break, and since I have few PS4 games at the moment, it's likely I'll get something done on this over the next 5 weeks.
December 23rd 2013, 06:21 PM
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shevek
Peasant They/Them Netherlands
Never be afraid to ask, but don't demand an answer 
Good to hear. Keep it up, I'm interested to see the result eventually.
April 30th 2014, 06:22 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
I've been silent on this project for the last couple months now, and that's mostly because I haven't been working on it. My motivation to work on this has been virtually zero as I have school, other projects I've been working on, and PS4 games to play. However, I have been thinking about this project on and off since the start of the year, and I have considered a couple of options on what to do with this D-mod.

Option 1: Release as a Demo

I could release what I've completed so far as a demo. Now, demos have a notorious reputation on this site to never be completed, but at this point, I think it probably wouldn't be completed anyway. At least, not on my own. As of right now, the game is roughly 30% complete, with a complete first area, and a mapped out first part of the second area but no finished or working quests to be played. The game is far from bug-free; there are probably a fair few game breaking bugs, but the game is functional. All the main and side quests of the first area are integrated and operational,(aside from a new bug I discovered recently that used to be functional,) including paragon and renegade options for each quest. I would do a little bit of cleanup and polish on the first area before releasing the Demo. While I feel that releasing a demo of this D-mod would probably be a death sentence for it's completion, I'd still rather release something someday than nothing.

Option 2: Partnership

This is something I was trying to do with a friend IRL but he has no free time anymore to try to help me. So, what I could do instead is partner up with someone here to work on this D-mod with me, so that this game could eventually be finished, and become the great epic I'd envisioned it to be. The requirements for a partnership would be a decent to considerable knowledge of DinkC so that you can handle most of the scripting that would be required, as well as being able to help me come up with creative new ideas to help make the game stand out. I have a fair number of ideas already, but there definitely needs to be more to complete the entire game. I would cover the basic and probably detail mapping of the remaining areas of the game, and some basic/detail scripting. I have a lot of ideas for what I want included in the remaining areas of the game written down in WordPad or something, and obviously, all of my resources would be shared. Again, the game is about 30% done, so the road would be a long one.

This would be the ideal option, though my own motivation would probably remain low. If someone is willing to try to partner with me, I would definitely try my best to get the mapping done to lay the groundwork for all the quests/scripting that still needs to be done.

Option 3: Disintegrate into Nothing
This project would not be released as a Demo, and would go on hold forever. If no one thinks a demo is a good idea or doesn't want to partner up with me, then this D-mod would just cease to exist. While it's not an ideal option, it is likely to happen otherwise.

Your opinions matter. Let me know what you guys think.
April 30th 2014, 06:34 PM
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leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
Eh, while I'm open for doing partnership work, I'm not about to jump onto someone else's project and take the reins. Mostly because that's just hard to do. It sounds like you just want someone to complete your dmod for you, but that's not going to happen. No one's going to be able to find the motivation to finish someone else's dmod when they can hardly find the motivation to finish their own.

I'd say release as a demo. Something is better than nothing.
April 30th 2014, 06:34 PM
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Quiztis
Peasant He/Him Sweden bloop
Life? What's that? Can I download it?! 
Hey, work on it from time to time and it will be finished when it's finished! You seem to have some free time as you've got PS4 games to play.
April 30th 2014, 06:46 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
I may not have worded my intentions with the partnership correctly. My intention is that I would handle the mapping part of the D-mod, and guiding you through my ideas for the quests and whatnot. I would still have the creative control, the reins, but largely, the scripting would not be done by me. I would script where I can, or get the base idea of something going, but I really am terrible at it. But yes, it would be a good chunk of work and I don't expect anyone to take this idea lightly.
April 30th 2014, 06:50 PM
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leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
Man if you want to request scripts for certain situations- like you want a boss that does this and that- I can help out. I'm not writing any dialogue though.
April 30th 2014, 08:13 PM
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shevek
Peasant They/Them Netherlands
Never be afraid to ask, but don't demand an answer 
if you want to request scripts for certain situations- like you want a boss that does this and that- I can help out.

Same here. If you have something that you want a script for, feel free to send me a private message (or e-mail, with enough D-Mod that I can test things). I'm not the right person for doing mapping or custom graphics or sound, but luckily you don't need that person.

I don't think I'm useful as a creative partner; I might occasionally suggest something, but don't count on anything.

(I'd want to use my preprocessor, which means the scripts will be pretty much unreadable the way they end up in the D-Mod, but on the other hand they would be more readable the way I write them. This doesn't mean anything you have would need to be converted; my scripts will just work in your D-Mod.)
May 1st 2014, 09:00 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
Now, demos have a notorious reputation on this site to never be completed, but at this point, I think it probably wouldn't be completed anyway. At least, not on my own.

That's where the 'unfinished' category is for.

Still, releasing it is probably the way to go, you could always put a note in the readme to allow someone else to complete it if they want. Team DMODs have a horrible reputation for their rather low succes rate. Team DMODs can only work if there is some strong leader overseeing the project, from your post I don't gather that you really want to be that leader. Still, as it primarily is your story, you'd have to be the development lead. Personally I much prefer working on my own megalomaniac project that will never see the light of day...

I can't really advice you on what you should do as you know a lot more about your situation than I do. Ultimately everybody wants to see something completed, but I'd rather have something than nothing. From the tone of your post I would advice you to take what you have now and make a proper ending for it. Doesn't matter if that ending is something of a cliff-hanger as long as it clearly marks where the DMOD ends. Then you'll end up with something that is at least playable. Nobody would like to see option three happening, everybody wants option 4...
May 1st 2014, 06:40 PM
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I can't really advice you on what you should do as you know a lot more about your situation than I do. Ultimately everybody wants to see something completed, but I'd rather have something than nothing. From the tone of your post I would advice you to take what you have now and make a proper ending for it. Doesn't matter if that ending is something of a cliff-hanger as long as it clearly marks where the DMOD ends. Then you'll end up with something that is at least playable. Nobody would like to see option three happening, everybody wants option 4...

Assuming nobody steps up to partner with you making the game, I totally agree with Metatarasal. Make the game "finished" in some way so that it at least has a satisfying conclusion and can be called a full work. It's not as good as fully completing the game but it means that it could be seen as an enjoyable romp instead of an unfinished epic. And if you ever do plan to finish it again someday, you can always make a "Part 2".
May 1st 2014, 08:29 PM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
Coming up with an arbitrary ending after the first boss of the game (the end of area 1) just wouldn't be fun, satisfying, or justice to the D-mod as a whole. That's not something I'd be willing to do just for the sake of turning this into a complete, small D-mod. It's looking like this will be polished up and be released as an unfinished epic/demo.

@thenewguy: I'd like to remind you that technically the full title to this D-mod is "Dink and the Bonca, Part 2: The Shadows of Death." So "DatB, Part 2: Shadows of Death Part 2" would be awkward.
May 2nd 2014, 02:48 PM
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Then perhaps part 3.
June 16th 2014, 04:18 AM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
I haven't said anything about this for a few weeks, but things should be happening very soon concerning the fate of my D-mod.

My friend will be playing my D-mod sometime this week, and he'll be helping me find bugs to annihilate. If everything goes smoothly, an unfinished version should be released sometime this summer, by the end of August. However, I've talked with said friend, and since he's interested in game programming, he's interested in helping me work on the D-mod. He'd be helping me work on everything, scripting and story, and help me to bring my vision to a fully completed state to be released as a finished game. ETA on this is difficult to say, but my hope would be 2014. An unfinished would not be released if this scenario goes well.

I keep getting constant ideas for what part 3 is going to be like, and I pretty much have the story figured out, and I know exactly where it's going to take place. It'll be somewhere everyone should be familiar with. Also, I know exactly who or what all the final bosses are going to be. Yeah, stuff goes down and there's going to be multiple final bosses. Muahahaha! I also have a working title for part 3, which will be revealed at the proper time.

Also, I added an additional screenshot to the original post, showing the map thus far, including the 30% of the desert area that I've done. Not that actual progress has been made since January, it's still technically an update you guys can mull over and enjoy for the time being.

That's all for now, I'll keep you guys updated with any news on progress.
June 16th 2014, 04:35 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
Nice to hear some updates!

An unfinished would not be released if this scenario goes well.

That sounds like a great idea. It is harder to motivate finishing a DMOD if there's already something out there. People will see whatever you have released differently from how you see it. You'll not really feel the urge to add things when you have something out there already. I really hope this will become something. Just a tip: Store the unfinished version as a backup somewhere, if the extended version won't be finished you'll still have something to release. This is not me trying to be negative for the future, just as an additional guarantee...

Also, with all due respect... But that map looks like it's miles away from epic territory still. I see that you have progress for the full mod at only 30%. If you (or your friend!) manage to still finish it as an epic after considering ditching it at only 30% I'd have a great deal of respect for that. Looking forward to the future of this again!
June 16th 2014, 04:57 AM
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DinkKiller
Peasant He/Him United States
The world could always use more heroes 
The map simply shows what areas I've actually worked on. The entire right half of the map is eventually going to become the overworld, with the grasslands, desert, and snowy areas, while the left half will be full of dungeons, secrets, and houses. I haven't mapped any of that yet because I haven't gotten to the point in making my game where those areas are necessary to build up. Trust me, I plan on using up as much of the 768 screens as I can, but I only map out areas as I start making content for them after finishing the previous area.

Also, if tons of progress is made on this, but then stops short of being finished, I can cut off the game at a certain point with one easy script and still release as unfinished. A backup isn't really necessary.

EDIT: Because I'll probably be working on this with my friend, I'm planning on writing out a complete design document for this game, to figure out all the main quests, every side quest, any mini games, and all the important plot points in this D-mod, so that the two of us won't be flying blind. We'll actually know where we're going and it won't be made up as we go for the last 70% of the game. While everything is already in my head, I'll be able to articulate it better in a word document, and flesh it out and thoroughly detail it. This might help add more content into the overall game, to make the experience meatier.