Magic & Mercenaries: Curse of Eternal Darkness

Just wanted to post a quick video of my in-development CRPG, based upon old-school games of the 1980s. If you liked the AD&D Gold-Box games, you'll probably find a lot to like in Magic & Mercenaries: Curse of Eternal Darkness.

This video mostly focuses on the combat engine, which is still in the early stages (no spells, only some of the functions work). The combat has a variable speed setting that the player can set, and this is in the middle (so it can run faster or slower, as the player desires).

Anyway, feel free to check it out and give feedback if you want. (Can't seem to get the YouTube video to embed in this thread for some reason…weird…)

https://youtu.be/a7kmrlTRC5U

Looks interesting. I like it.

I like what I see!! Please keep up informed, this is something I truly look forward to playing at some point

Looks good. I'm actually digging the monochrome, CGAish look.

Here's an updated video.

The spell system isn't functioning yet (that'll be coming up soon). There are many improvements to the system. Sadly some of them aren't in the video.

* PCs and Monsters can use the Guard feature (for those of you not familiar with the mechanic, Guarding allows someone to stand ready and attack the first time an enemy approaches within melee range).
* PCs and Monsters get free attacks whenever someone moves away from them (this is not shown in the video, though).
* Ranged attacks with animation are in the game.
* Monsters can surrender based upon individual morale, which is calculated given how many of their allies have died and how much damage they have taken (not shown in the video).
* Combat speed can be set on the fly from the menu, allowing a player to speed up or slow down combat on their turn to suit their tastes. Five settings in all (not show in the video).
* Aiming system that allows a player to look at each ally and each enemy and to target one with either melee or ranged attacks (and spells in the future).

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTJy…ature=youtu.be

Looks great!

Lots of great improvements, I can see myself playing this for certain at some point in the future.

Now that's authentically old-school! Gave me a little rush of childhood memories.

I did a test build in color to see what it would look like. I don't know that I want to abandon the monochrome look, but I thought I'd throw it out there to get some feedback. You can check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1DTIf4jV0

Looks fine, but it doesn't give me the nostalgic feeling of the limited palette.

That’s pretty much how i feel about it as well. It’s hard to know for sure when you’re really close to the project.

Hmm, I think I like the color better. Monochrome is a tad too retro for me. My first gaming was done on a C64. I don't really have any special affinity for retro graphics though so maybe I'm not the target audience. But it's not a dealbreaker if I like the gameplay. And I did like the Gold Box games, minus the code wheels..

Does the game look terrible in color? Because the monochrome style graphics kind of made everything look like it belonged together.

Personally I like the color better, but it may be just because it makes it look more like the original gold box series.

I think the monochrome version looks great, but I prefer it in colour. Like fadedc says, it's probably a gold box thing. The game looks fine either way though, so I'd be happy with whatever you decide.

Looks fine to me, I'd play it in a heart beat.

Thanks for the awesome feedback. I'm going to go with the color version.

As per the suggestions here, I have been slowly converting the game to color (using a limited palette) as well as working on many other game functions over the last few months (including spell casting).

Here's a GIF of a party walking around in a hallway. Not too exciting, but at least is shows what the game is looking like in color now…

Looks really nice to me, I get an older Might and Magic vibe from what I see, and I mean that as a high compliment. Please keep us up to date, as this looks like something I'd really like to try out.

Looks good! Definitely has that AD&D Gold Box vibe. I like it better in color. (Maybe you could provide the option to play in either monochrome or color?)