Lord of the Cyclops

[DrDungeon]

Whoa! I feel like an astronaut just jumped into an alien world, but with my massive mother-ship hovering in orbit. I am known as Dr. Dungeon. I want to apologize ahead of time if I'm at all off-topic. I'm a long-term Spiderweb fan and supporter. This seems the best place in the world to announce this:

 

ULTIZURK IV: Lord of the Cyclops is done!! What is it?? You can see the whole thing here: (Are links ok here?)

http://web.me.com/drdungeon/Site/MAIN.html

 

If not, feel free to email me at my mac address:

drdungeon@mac.com

 

ULTIZURK IV is a large and incredibly detailed new computer role-playing game, similar to great games like Avernum and Geneforge, different in others. Its nothing at all like my old DOS stuff. (Search Ultizurk 3 on the net)

 

Right now, it is on just the Mac - maybe a port in store to Windows if it goes half-well. The big thing about UZ4 is that while it has all the role-playing fixings, etc., its biggest brag is a very interactive world - stylistically similar to something like Ultima 7. Yes, you can bake bread and much more. Pick fruit for food, herbs for potions, make swords, trim sheep, use a weaving loom, chop ore from dungeons. Pop popcorn, etc.

 

Right now, as I write, an Indy film-maker is working on a complete music score. I already have over 100 sound effects in a game filled with over 3,000 tile graphics. It was an insanely complicated process that I have been working on in one form or another for over ten years. Project of my life - hardest thing I ever did.

 

There are wilderness areas to explore! Villas and cottages dot the land, volcanic regions bubbling in lava, desolate icy northlands. Farmlands and creepy dungeons abound. Day and night cycle, calendar - the works!

 

There are Amazons, willing to fight or teach. Castles with tall spires and waving flags, hundreds of NPC's. A party of 4 you create to explore Dr. Dungeon's bizarre new world!

 

And Ol' Killer-Jack Bill, the nutty but helpful fellow - hiding out in his sewers, dancing with the Amazons, or running a lemonaid stand in the fire-laden Blasted Lands. The lovely Water Witch, and her sister, the Fire Witch. A complete shipyard to sail to faraway places. Monsters weird and wonderful, like the WereShades that roam the Grizbon Plateau, ghosts, fire elementals, even snakemen.

 

And behind it all a strange invasion about to take place: The cyclops are coming, and no one knows who or what they are.

 

My goal is pretty bold: I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, if its good enough, maybe I can convince the great Spiderweb Software to carry this.

 

I need play-testers, hopefully those who have beta tested Spider Web's excellent games. Only you guys and gals can truly judge if this game is worthy, in that "there's another one-man basement programmer out there" sort of a way.

 

If you're interested, please write me! We got to keep the classic gender alive, and Spiderweb is the only ones making really good classic stuff!

 

I hope Jeff doesn't read this. My big goal is to SURPRISE him!!!

 

I need your help guys! Check the site, let me know what you think!

Until then, bold adventurers, I remain yours,

-Dr. Dungeon

-In The Castle of

-The Mach Gryphon

 

Note: Right now its set as a Mac Intel-native program. It needs a res of 1680x1050 or higher - more about this later. Cheerio!

[Ephesos]

...Hunh. Well, welcome to the boards, and I wish you luck in your endeavors. Releasing a game is tough, but I'm pretty sure you know that already.

 

Quote:

I hope Jeff doesn't read this. My big goal is to SURPRISE him!!!

 

Posting it on his company forums is a bad plan.

 

Quote:

We got to keep the classic gender alive, and Spiderweb is the only ones making really good classic stuff!

 

1. I think you mean "genre".

2. I disagree, and it depends a lot on what you call "classic".

 

Quote:

It needs a res of 1680x1050 or higher - more about this later.

 

I am very curious as to why this resolution was chosen. It seems fairly arbitrary, and it means I will never be able to play it. Which makes me much more likely to lock this thread for being a fairly straightforward ad.

[Enraged Slith]

Not sure how long this thread will last, but I wish you luck on your project. I wouldn't be able to help as I don't use a Mac.

[DrDungeon]

"Posting it on his company forums is a bad plan."

 

Hey ho! Thanks for the replies. A couple quick points. The main reason I came here was because years ago - probably more than ten (where does the time go??) I had sent a copy of my early game, "The Great Ultizurkian Underland" to Jeff Vogel himself. He described it as "very professional" and even mentioned that he might consider working with me on a project in the future.

 

Unfortunately my own schedule got a little whacky here and I was out of the loop for awhile. But my thinking is if Jeff himself thought "Underland" was very professional, I have no idea what he would think of UZ4 as its like 100 times more complex than Underland.

 

More importantly still - not to sound like the butterer-upper, but you guys here on the Spiderweb forums are just plain more INTELLIGENT than posters I see on other game forums! Seriously - look at your own spelling, Ephesos. Not a single error and you got me on the genre thing. And I thought I was a good zpeller.

 

Please understand this is not at all an ad as I am only seeking worthy play-testers, and I believe they are here. I figure only those who have tested or played Avernum or Geneforge could truly judge the quality, or lack thereof, of UZ4. Maybe they'll think its incredible for one guy to make something this elaborate, or maybe think its just dumb. I just don't know. 'Tis why I'm here. Not to make enemies, not to spam, but more like make friends who like cool new games, new talent.

 

I am 52 years old and have been programming since the TRS-80 days, take my work very seriously, and even got an offer from Origin when they saw "Ultizurk III: The Guildmaster's Quest" (Harvey Smith - who later worked on "Dues Ex" with Warren Spector.) Couldn't move at the time - figures. They were going to put me on the "Multima" team - later Ultima Online, headed by Starr Long, or possibly on Harvey's own "Technosaur". Alas, it wasn't long after when EA marched in and basically zapped Origin as we knew it. Sigh.

 

He said UZ3 reminded him of "The Princess Bride" but I didn't know what that was at the time.

 

I know the resolution is an issue. What happened was I actually started this on Windows in 640x480 which promptly went obsolete. When I decided to go to a Mac, I bought the 24 inch in 2007 and noticed the smaller iMac was at 1680x1050 native. Mine is 1920x1200. I may have miss-figured that these were common resolutions. I was just figuring it wouldn't go obsolete any time soon.

 

What I hadn't taken into account was the many MacBooks out there! Indeed, some of my developer buddies on the programmer forums have pointed this out to me and I am considering if I can somehow pack the graphics into a smaller format for these machines.

 

On the old Win version, the 640x480 became very cluttered - with a lot of stuff popping up on the main viewport, so the first thing I did for my Mac re-fit was to move almost everything - inventories, etc., off the main view.

 

Of course this filled my resolution up very quickly, and I wanted the characters to be a certain size so they would look half-decent. (You can download one of the screenshots from the site to see it in full size and you'll see why this is a little tricky.)

 

Still, I know I should examine it and see if there's some way I can support a lower res. Not sure what the lowest should be?

 

Enraged Slith - don't worry! It may be easier than I thought to port this to Windows as I use a cross-platform development suite. Much like SpiderWeb usually releases a Mac version first, then a Windows port later. I vowed I would support the players first and foremost - not just my own wishes!

 

And in the end, if SpiderWeb doesn't like it or want it, I can always STEAMIFY it. -Dr. D.

[Rowen]

If you want to know what Jeff thinks I would recommend emailing him rather then posting on the forums. He does check the forums but not as often as he does his email.

 

Good luck.

[Ephesos]

Quote:

Still, I know I should examine it and see if there's some way I can support a lower res. Not sure what the lowest should be?

I would recommend 1024 x 768, since it's a very common non-widescreen format that isn't tiny. 1024 x 640 for widescreen.

[grasshopper]

I think I agree with everyone else here about screen resolution. There were two reasons I first got in to spiderweb style games

 

1. I was bored of my gamecube

2. My first mac was pre-intel and was too slow to run DOSbox games, and couldn't run windows for more modern games.

 

I would highly advise a lower screen-res. But then again I may be wrong, I only play games, not make them.

 

I wish you the best of luck! I'm sure that making a game from scratch is a non-trivial thing.