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Deepstone Catacomb in 30 days (360 hours)


mickmuze

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❤️ the cartridge art. It takes me back to the 80s when I played D&D as a kid -- the atmosphere is very reminiscent of old school AD&D books and module art. I was even more floored when Al mentioned to me in FB that the programmer and artist were one and the same person -- you're very talented Mr. @mickmuze. Looking very forward to the physical release. I hope it comes with a box?

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Thanks @socrates63 and everyone else who commented :) I’m really glad it gave you that D&D vibe because that’s pretty much what I was going for. My older brother was the dungeon master when I was a kid so we had a lot of those books around the house and I just loved flipping through the art and getting lost in them.

 

as for the box, yes, there will be a box. ??

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48 minutes ago, Albert said:

Here's the finalized box for Deepstone Catacomb!  Can't wait to see this in print!  :)

Yes yes yes yes, awesome! I've really been looking forward to the release of this game on cart, it's so much fun!

 

Ouch my wallet, SO MANY good titles coming out!

 

- James

 

OH WOW, I just noticed I have a quote on the back of the box!! I'm honoured!! ❤️

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On 5/15/2020 at 4:48 PM, abrower9d9 said:

Take my money already!

 

That box is great! Love the art and old school Atari box look.
 

This would make a nice mini poster or even a cool 8 x 11 advertisement. Please consider including with the CIB. 
 

Looks like something I could have come across in one of my Electronic Games issues.?

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I love the artwork, and I'm REALLY looking forward to this game.  I also like when authors choose to go with an Atari style box and label.  There's one thing I wish would be taken into consideration though, which is the quality of the game in comparison to the era of the 2600's timeline.

 

Ex: The black label games being very early releases, '77-'81, had the quality you'd expect from an early release on a system, (not saying the games were bad -- many are classics -- but the graphics and game style were more simple, ie. typically single screen games with a few exceptions like Adventure, Berzerk, Superman, and most used double line sprites).

 

The silver label games, typically '82-'84, usually had a pretty substantial leap in graphical quality (I'm thinking Pac-man vs. Ms. Pac-man or Pole Position vs. Street Racer).  Many of these were multi-screen games and often used single line sprites, (Crystal Castles, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, Krull, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Vanguard, Battlezone).

 

Red label games are the ones I viewed as a kid as being the really high quality games.  These late releases often had yet another quality jump and the graphics usually really impressed me, even in the NES era -- when they weren't just re-labeled earlier releases,  (Crossbow - which I would show off to my NES friends, Roadrunner, Dark Chambers, Jr. Pac-Man, Secret Quest, and so on).

 

Again, I love the artwork for this, but the quality and style of the game places it in at least the silver label era... at bare minimum, but more probably a red label game.  Advantages of red labels is you get to see a bit more of the artwork and they're still easy to print.  Many silver labels had fuller faced artwork (like Gremlins) and silver would look great with this game's artwork, but silver is hard to print without significant cost.  I understand that many people have more nostalgia for black label games because that's the time period they relate to playing Atari, but this is just my 2 cents.  Of course, this is speaking generally and for the North American region (as there were various re-releases to which this doesn't apply).  Regardless, I'm really excited for this game.

Edited by KevinMos3
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You make very valid points, and I get where you are coming from, however I went into this with a different mindset.

 

Before I wrote my first line of code, I knew what I wanted this box to look like.

 

The choices I made when creating every aspect of my game was to make it visually appealing to myself (also, in high hopes that others would like and enjoy it as well of course).  

 

Having a game on cartridge and in a box was kind of a dream of mine since I was a kid. This is my first completed game and It is also a giant mix and match of my childhood. I’ve mixed so many things together that defines a lot of what I was into as I was growing up. Everything, even down to the choices in colours have meaning to me in some way.

 

It was less about following the proper rules and timeline for me than it was to mix everything that I thought was good about the era. It’s fun, it’s art.

 

That’s one reason that the back of my box has a bit more life to it than the original boxes did. It’s more about what feels better than how it actually should be to fit into the exact time period.

 

But what you said is fair... I like rules and structure, but then again, I don’t. It’s complicated ?

 

Thanks for you’re input and I’m glad you are looking forward to my game :) 

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3 hours ago, mickmuze said:

You make very valid points, and I get where you are coming from, however I went into this with a different mindset...

..Thanks for you’re input and I’m glad you are looking forward to my game :) 

I completely respect your decision. As I was typing, I was hoping it would be received as more of a compliment than a criticism.  :)

It's something that I think of every time I see it happen but never say anything.  I just hope that the point will be brought up with future releases and if the author chooses otherwise, that's totally their decision.  Thank you for receiving it with grace and explaining your reasoning (I know you did not owe that to me, but it will help me feel better about it when I pop it into my console).  You're a class act.  :thumbsup:

There was another game that did the same thing just the other day (same color box and all).  Perhaps it was two in such close succession that got me to say something.

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I wish more homebrews would make boxes that look like the old Atari boxes no matter if it is original run, the red boxes, or the silver ones. Hell, I'd love to see a Telegames mock up. 

 

Even better, if someone could replicate the hand drawn art of the early boxes. 

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4 minutes ago, FroggoGamer said:

Even better, if someone could replicate the hand drawn art of the early boxes. 

Agreed, would love to see more of this. I was flipping through the Art of Atari book while I was creating DeepStone’s box art and thought of attempting to emulate one of my favourite artists in there. However, I did decide to go a different route in the end.

 

I have a huge appreciation for those original paintings though. Each artist used different tools and had a completely different take and style on what they felt the box art should be and portray.

 

On a side note, Brian’s Man Cave reviewed the game if anyone hasn’t seen it. Thought I’d share it here:

 

 

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I like the art but there is something about those classic covers. I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted for mine and it is hard because, in my opinion, you have to reconcile the age of the hardware with everything else.  

 

When I look at things like video games or board games, my choice is sometimes influenced by these considerations. Would a 1970s game look good with 2020 style artwork? 

 

I do think your cover captures it all very well.

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4 hours ago, 4ever2600 said:

Say, are you 5bytes on YouTube?  Is this the 'Under the Castle ' game?

Oh wow, I never even made the connection. The games certainly share a similar look

 

Under the Castle Video: https://youtu.be/vaAlYC_8YSA

 

Left: Deepstone Catacomb | Right: Under the Castle

 

image.thumb.png.78fc386be69064b92873435e1601fe66.png

 

- James

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DC_GameMap_Guide.png

 

This is a game guide for Deepstone that I was working on. It's not really needed, but was fun to do. I just represented each floor by four rooms to keep it simple. All the floors are random, so it won't help map your way out in the game, but it does show what type of monsters to expect on each floor. Also it will give you a rough idea on how much further you have to go to reach the Dark Lord at the bottom.

Edited by mickmuze
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14 hours ago, mickmuze said:

This is a game guide for Deepstone that I was working on. It's not really needed, but was fun to do. I just represented each floor by four rooms to keep it simple. All the floors are random, so it won't help map your way out in the game, but it does show what type of monsters to expect on each floor. Also it will give you a rough idea on how much further you have to go to reach the Dark Lord at the bottom.

Great map, very handy reference! I'm really looking forward to the boxed release to continue diving into the Catacombs and conquer level 2!

 

- James

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