Dammerung (what I've been up to the past year) playable demo

For anyone interested in a change of pace or just wants to have a reason to criticize me   

Dammerung: Requiem for Tomorrow is an original game I've been working on for the last year or so.
The 'official' project thread is HERE.
The game itself (what part is done) is available as a download HERE.

Disclaimer: This is a game that is intended to ask serious questions about the human condition: life, religion (no real world religions), sexuality (mostly handled through innuendo and fade to black), and other 'serious' topics that can come up in a grown-up conversation. There is some mild 'language' (very mild compared to Bloodlines). I've tried not to put anything in the game I wouldn't want my 12 year old daughter to see, and I don't intend to (she's older now, but I do remember what she was like, then again, when she was nine her favorite show was Law and Order:SVU, so she may or may not be a good barometer for you).

The playable demo is about four to five hours of content, and serves as the 'prologue' to the larger story. There is a Big Bad at the end so there is some feeling of 'completion' (I hope) in itself. It's a self extracting .exe - you don't need anything else to play. The 'structure' of the game is a story heavy beginning,  a combat heavy middle, then back to a more story based (with combat interspersed) ending.

The "main" character, Sofia, has a choice very early to decide whether Jaxl (another PC) is her lover or her friend. This choice is permanent (most choices in the game are). I went this route so that 'romantic' events can be enjoyed for what they are without having to worry about 'correct' answers or keeping up some 'relationship' score.

The game is a 2D, turn based, old school jRPG style game (think Final Fantasy I-VI, early Dragon Warrior/Quests, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger). I've drawn heavily from games like Xenosaga, Final Fantasy (I've played almost all up through XII and the recent DS ones), Dragon Quest, Diablo (I and II), Planescape:Torment, Baldur's Gate and others (I'm sure there's some Bloodlines influence, conscious or not, along with Arcanum). The mechanics under the hood are very much inspired (read: stolen) from Diablo 2.  The game is playable with either keyboard or mouse - keyboard is the engine's default input: keep your fingers over the arrow keys, use <Enter> for choices/actions and <Ins> on the NumPad for pulling up menu and cancel (Esc, basically - which also works). Use your left hand to hold your beer    You have a 'journal' that records both diary type entries as well as 'quest' type stuff. Magic is not in yet - it comes with class changes later (more detailed description of charaters and game features on the official thread).

I know this is a great community of gamers, so if any of you have the time or inclination to try the game (demo) out and give me some honest feedback (please don't hold back, I've got thick skin) I would be seriously grateful.

The game takes about four to five hours to play through. Without giving anything away: talk to everybody until they start repeating lines (some NPC's will sound like they ended the conversation but still have more to say - this is deliberate), talk to them again after a 'local' significant event, and save as soon as you enter Lumina Sound. Every combination of choices there brings you some advantages (unless you really go out of your way to hose yourself - but that path is pretty obvious).

Again, thanks in advance to any who give it a try, and good wishes to Malkav on his latest project!


Btw, in case I forgot earlier - gratz to Zero on the release of 1.2  

Looks like there is a problem with the download. I can't access it from here or find it on the site you link to.

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Check your firewall/virus scanner settings.

I just did the right click/open in new window on both of them and they opened up fine - one to the webpage and the other to the 'save as' box.

Edit: I'm using Firefox

chrome works fine, though the download is directly downloaded, I kinda expected link to the download page. meh.

I use internet explorer. And even with firewall and virus scanner deactivated i can't download it.

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Childe of Malkav wrote:

I use internet explorer.

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I recon the cause of your malady has been found, dear sir.

Childe of Malkav wrote:

I use internet explorer. And even with firewall and virus scanner deactivated i can't download it.

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You do know that IE is like, majorly vulnerable right now?
To the point where the gov't has advised employees not to use it.

Edit: and thank you for the sticky   

Childe of Malkav wrote:

I use internet explorer.
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Now that's living on the edge

IE has so many faults, who knows what she's carrying :-p

Grats on your release. I'll give it a spin once I get home.

Bloodywolf wrote:

IE has so many faults, who knows what she's carrying :-p

Grats on your release. I'll give it a spin once I get home.

Were you able to give it a spin?

I gave it a spin, it's fun. However, the mouse play is kind of tricky since you can't hold the button down to move, you need to keep clicking. And I've noticed some characters have vampire teeth, is that intentional or just the 'different world, humans look slightly different" or maybe I've missed something.


It's all about the story of course, and it's a good one, I haven't finished it yet, (it's crunch time here in College and I kind of forgot about it) but it feel well written albeit it does have the regular 'is every important person other than the main character and it's party idiots?' feeling.

There is not much to note about the combat, just your average jrpg

Bloodywolf wrote:

I gave it a spin, it's fun. However, the mouse play is kind of tricky since you can't hold the button down to move, you need to keep clicking. And I've noticed some characters have vampire teeth, is that intentional or just the 'different world, humans look slightly different" or maybe I've missed something.


It's all about the story of course, and it's a good one, I haven't finished it yet, (it's crunch time here in College and I kind of forgot about it) but it feel well written albeit it does have the regular 'is every important person other than the main character and it's party idiots?' feeling.

There is not much to note about the combat, just your average jrpg

The Vampire teeth is my most requested feature 'fix' for the engines character generator. So far nothing: I may have to commission somebody to make some normal mouths.

The mouse click thing is an engine limitation: the actual 'event listeners' are in the engine code, not out in the scripts. I'm trying to find a way around it, but every 'fix' seems to break something else.

I'm glad you like the story, as that is what the game is about to me. Combat is supposed to be a bit drab for a while. The next castle you get to (right after the demo ends) starts the class system where you can choose what direction you want to take your characters.

The idea is to avoid the 'chosen one' trope as much as possible. Child of Bhaal, sired by Caine, Revan's new incarnation, Prophesied something or other, etc...

Just played a bit, though I will be playing more.

Don't really see any problems, though the method of "Healing" the character...no, no, no, I like it. Thought it would be something more the usual, but this is more interesting.

As for the Vampire teeth, maybe it could be given a bit of a story if that can't be changed. Nothing says they have to be Vampires, as I'd think something else would fit better.

Actually, I did come across one problem. Might not be a spoiler, but...

Spoiler:

Thanks Maxus. Hope you're enjoying it. Here's a pro tip:

Spoiler:

As for your bug - the first part is a necessary evil, the second should have been fixed though, I'll have to go back and check that. Thinking about it - it _was_ a necessary evil before I added the mouse script (which added pathfinding). I may be able to rework that whole ending now.